Kid-Conscious Recipe of the Week

Since we have so many great cooks in our membership rolls, I am adding a new feature to the blog; Recipe of the Week.  Through this weekly feature, we can share our tried-and-true, family friendly, nourishing recipes.  I am always looking for a fresh approach to presenting nutritious food to my family. I would appreciate that you send your recipe submissions to my email at holisticfreckles@sbcglobal.net.  These can be family recipes, links from your favorite blog, excerpts from recipe books or your own creation.  When you find something that works, please share it with us!

I'll kick this off with something I've been talking about on the loop.  Fresh whole wheat sandwich bread.  When I first got my breadmaker as a gift from my in-laws, I wasn't exactly sure about it.  I liked the thought of less work in the kitchen, but breadmaking was one of the tasks I didn't see as a chore.  I enjoyed the mental and physical therapy that kneading the dough provided.  Taking something from a chaotically sticky mass to a smooth and manageable ball was so satisfying.  This was, however, when I made bread only on special occasions.  Once I started truly making bread on a daily basis, I embraced and came to adore the convenience of my breadmaker.

When I first began baking bread in the breadmaker, each and every recipe I tried turned out as a heavy brick.  Whole wheat?  Forget it.  I finally got a recipe from Co-Leader, Jen Oh, and had my first semblance of success. I used it for months before I came across a technique for a lighter loaf involving the additions of natural acidity, starch and gluten.  I began playing around with this technique and eventually developed this recipe.  The pictures I'll post show the amazing difference in rise and crumb between the two recipes using the same amount of flour and water.  If you like the flavor of wheat bread but loathe the heavy texture, you will love this bread!

Original, unmodified recipe (pictured left)
1 cup warm water
3 cups whole wheat flour (I used freshly ground,  
   sprouted white wheat) If you want a less dense 
   loaf, use half/half white to whole wheat flour.
3 T Coconut Oil (or your preferred oil)
2 T Honey(or 3T of your preferred dry sugar)
1 T Kosher Salt (or 1.5 tsp. fine sea salt)
2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast

Mix all ingredients in breadmaker for 5 minutes, turn off machine.  Add yeast to top of mixture and set timer for machine to complete its "whole wheat bread" setting in 9 hours.  This will give the dough time to soak and absorb the liquids.


Christina's Light and Fluffilicious 
100% Whole Wheat Bread (pictured left)

I am writing this recipe for a breadmaker with a timer to delay the start of the dough/baking process. You can certainly make this recipe without the assistance of a breadmaker, but you may not get the same results due to not being able to soak the dough overnight without the yeast.  Experiment with the timing of adding the yeast and see how it goes.



Add to bread machine in this order:

1 Cup warm water
2 T Orange Juice
4 T Ghee or Butter or Coconut Oil
2 T Honey or Malted Barley Syrup
Heaping 1/4 Cup Dried Potato Flakes (or 2 T potato flour -- again Bob's Red Mill makes one)
2 T Buttermilk Powder (or nonfat milk powder)
1 T Kosher Salt (or 1.5 tsp. fine sea salt)
3 Cups Whole Wheat Flour (again, I used freshly-ground, sprouted white wheat, but King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour is a good substitute)


*At this point, start the machine mixing.  Let the machine mix until all ingredients are moistened and well incorporated (about 5 minutes).  Stop the machine and reset.  I set the machine on "Whole wheat," 1.5 pound loaf with a light crust.  I then set the timer so that the finished bread will be ready at 8:00 in the morning, when I am up and getting breakfast ready. 


NOW, don't forget to add:


2 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast

I add the yeast at the end so that it will not activate during the overnight soaking process.  When the machine starts in the morning, the yeast will mix thoroughly into the dough and begin the rising process.  When the bread finishes baking, take it immediately out of the machine and empty loaf onto breadboard to cool for 30 minutes before slicing.

Enjoy!

Christina

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