Soft Honey White/Wheat Sandwich Bread

Hi all,

I promised I'd share my honey white/wheat bread recipe with you so here it is.

What this recipe yields is one loaf of soft crusted soft crumbed sandwich bread that is really great and very easy to make and created for us old folks that can't eat hard crusted tough crumbed breads anymore.

Now, since I start with 3 cups of flour then add the liquid, it doesn't even need to be measured all that closely.

So, here goes;

I start with about 3 cups King Arthur flour in a large glass mixing bowl, (I say 'about' because all I do is grab a 1/2 cup measure and dip out 6 half cups of flour.), 2 cups all purpose white & 1 cup whole wheat. I then add 2 rounded teaspoons of Fleischmann's active dry yeast, 1 rounded teaspoon sea salt, then whisk all together well. (Nothing exact here. At this stage, all I need to be is close.)

Meanwhile, I'm warming up a scad short 1 cup milk, 3 Tablespoons of real butter and 1 Tablespoon of raw buckwheat honey,. (My honey source is, http://www.ebeehoney.com/ Wonderful people who sell wonderful honey products, btw.)

When the milk mixture is warm, NOT hot, I slowly start pouring it into the flour mixture, stirring it with a wooden spoon until it forms the dough ball. (I like this part because there's no real measuring involved. I just add the liquid until the dough ball forms.)

I then knead the dough, right in the bowl for a few minutes until it all comes together nicely adding more milk mixture as needed. (I then drink the leftover milk mixture. What's that they say about milk & honey and the Gods?)

I give the bowl and the dough ball a flour dusting, cover it with a wet warm towel, then set it in my oven to raise for a good hour. (My oven warms up to exactly 100 degrees with the light on.)

When double in bulk, (It sometimes quadruples within an hour), I knead it again, right in the bowl for a few minutes to clean up the extra flour I used for dusting. (How easy does this get? Clean up as I progress along.)

Using a rubber spatula, I liberally coat the inside of the pan with lots of real butter then shape the dough to fit the pan using my fingers to 'squish' it into all four corners, (No smooth store bought looking bread here.), to raise again in my oven until it just peaks the top of the pan rim. (Maybe 30 minutes. Watch it! It'll get away from you.)

Using that same spatula, I now liberally coat the top of the dough and sometimes will even slit the top. (I also place a pot of almost boiling water in with it instead of covering the dough in the pan. The almost boiling water gives off plenty of warm mist to keep the dough from crusting.)

Since I was using my oven for rising the dough, I now simply remove the pot of hot water then turn the oven on to 350 degrees F. and bake it for 40 minutes. (Oops! I wasn't watching it. It got away. It rose a bit too much but still made a great loaf of bread. (That, by the way, was a 20 minute rise.))

As you can see, clean up is a dream come true, too. All I have to clean up is one bowl, one measuring cup, one spoon, one spatula, and one bread pan. No floured surfaces or flour scattered anywhere. It was all done in the bowl.

Recipe Ingredients:

1 cup milk heated up to about 100 degrees.
3 Tablespoons real butter.
1 Tablespoons raw buckwheat honey. (Or your favorite)
2 cups King Arthur All Purpose Flour.
1 cup King Arthur Traditional Whole Wheat Flour.
1 rounded teaspoon Sea salt.
2 rounded teaspoons Fleischmann's Active Dry Yeast

And, there you have it. Simple and easy soft Honey White/Wheat sandwich bread.

Comments are very welcomed... I'm sure I'll get a few as unorthodox as this recipe is.

Enjoy!

Rick