Whole Wheat Bread Recipe!

I don't know what it is about making homemade bread. Doesn't it make you feel good inside!?! Well, maybe it's just me. I feel like such a good homemaker, a good mom, a good wife, and living frugal. Plus, there's nothing better than eating homemade bread right out of the oven! I wanted to share a super great whole wheat bread recipe that I heard is the bomb! I got it from one of my favorite blogs that I will share with you ... myfoodstoragedeals.blogspot.com. I am going to make this bread today for the first time, so I will let you know how it turns out. I hope some of you will try it with me and let me know how your turns out!

Emilie's Whole Wheat Bread

Makes 4 8/4 inch loaves.

7 c. whole wheat flour (grind your own if you have a wheat grinder)

2/3 c. vital wheat gluten

2 1/2 T. instant yeast

5 c. steaming hot water (120-130 F)

2 T. salt

2/3 c. oil

2/3 c. honey or 1 c. sugar (I like honey the best!)

2 1/2 T. bottled lemon juice

5 c. whole wheat flour

Mix together the first three ingredients in your mixer with a dough hook. Add water all at once and mix for 1 minute; cover and let rest for 10 minutes (this is called sponging). Add salt, oil, honey or sugar, and lemon juice and beat for 1 minute. Add last flour, 1 cup at a time, beating between each cup. Beat for about 6-10 minutes until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. This makes very soft dough.Pre-heat oven for 1 minute to lukewarm and turn off. Turn dough onto oiled counter top; divide, shape into loaves place in oiled bread pans. Let rise in warm oven for 10-15 minutes until dough reaches top of pan. Do not remove bread from oven; turn oven to 350 F and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from pans and cool on racks. This recipe can be halved to make 2 loaves.

*She ONLY uses Bakers Secret 8x4 inch non stick pans (we could only find them at Smith's grocery store, strange enough).

**Another tip..when the dough is put into the bread pans, squish the dough softly into the corners of your bread loaf pans. This will make your bread cook more evenly and not have the large lump in the middle of your loaf.