My Favorite Whole Wheat Bread Recipe

Good-to-Know Tips:

• Do you have to use lemons in whole wheat bread? No,  but it makes it better because lemons are a natural dough enhancer. But I’ve made it before without and it’s been fine.
• Don’t omit the salt! It will not only change the taste, but it will also affect the whole chemistry of the recipe because the salt interacts with the yeast.
• Not that it’s the end of the world, but did you know that oxidation decreases nutritional content? As soon as you grind wheat kernels into flour, the germ (healthiest part of the wheat) begins to oxidize. Putting it into bread dough decreases the rate of oxidation. So in other words, the less time wheat spends as flour, the better. That’s why it’s better to grind your own wheat rather than buying it already ground at the store. Cooking at too high of an oven temperature can also affect the nutritional content of wheat. 
• If you’re not going to be able to use it right away, freezing your wheat flour will help it stay fresher for longer.
• Freezing your yeast also is a good idea to increase the shelf-life. 
• I used red wheat. But many people prefer the taste of white wheat. What’s the difference? Well, white wheat is a genetically modified version of red wheat. It has more gluten and a slightly less bitter taste–the color & taste is a lot more similar to that of white flour. Red wheat has slightly more protein, but I think they are both pretty similar in terms of nutritional content.[Update – So I recently tried out this recipe with white wheat and it turned out a lot lighter and fluffier. More like white bread, almost. Alex even labeled it “give-away-able” bread. Score! ]
• Did you know that you can use applesauce in the place of oil to make it even healthier? I haven’t tried it with this specific recipe, but my grandma does it all the time when making whole wheat bread and it comes out great. [OK Update – I just tried it out. I added half the oil and half the honey, and then substituted in some applesauce. It turned out great! It was really moist- even more so than the regular recipe- and it stayed that way for days. One thing to keep in mind is that this makes it a little more dense and heavy (I ended up having to add in quite a bit more flour than usual). Alex loved it.
• Using fresh lemon juice is better than buying lemon juice in the bottle because the latter have artificial preservatives added in.
• DO NOT add more flour than needed. Doing so will make it very heavy rather than light and fluffy like you want. (Don’t worry if it is still a little sticky–just so long as you can handle it with oiled hands without it being unmanageably sticky. It should wipe the sides of the mixer clean -or somewhat clean- and should clump together in a ball).
• If you’re not sure if it’s done, you can stick a meat thermometer in through the middle (up from the bottom). If it’s about 190 degrees, it’s done. 

 2. Add water and mix for 1 minute. Cover bowl and let sit for 10 minutes.

3. Add salt, oil, honey, and lemon juice. Beat for 1 minute.

4. Heat oven to 120 degrees. Grease 2 nonstick full size bread pans, or 3 smaller bread pans (I prefer the latter).

6. Rub a little oil on your hands and evenly divide into two loaves (or three smaller ones) and place into bread pans. Spank it down really hard to get out all the air bubbles before letting it rise.

8. Without removing pans from the oven, turn on oven to 325°F and set timer for 30 minutes. (Of course, oven times may vary. In my oven, I’ve found that 32 minutes is perfect). Once baked, immediately remove hot bread from pans and cool on rack. Butter the tops of the loaves while hot. Enjoy!!