A New Bread Recipe

I have enjoyed making my own whole wheat bread for some time now. All the while, sticking my head into the sand over the fact that I was, little by little, running out of honey. The recipe (which can be found HERE) that I have been using from www.breadbeckers.com is awesome! BUT, at 1/3 cup of honey per two loaves, I have been thinking that I had better come up with a solution, and soon! Well, the inevitable happened. I am out of honey. At $40 per gallon, I don't plan on stocking up any time soon. I used to be able to get it for $20 a gallon. SO! What to do, what to do? I decided to experiment by mixing the recipe I had been using with another that I have used in the past, but didn't like nearly as much. Much to my surprise, it worked! I now have a honey-free recipe that turned out as good, or better than my old standby!

I made two batches. The first I kneaded by hand and I found it to be very soft and easy to knead. It never did "toughen" up. I formed this dough into two loaves. The next batch I made, I let my bread machine do the mixing and first rising. Then I took it out and formed it into 15 large rolls. This batch did super, as well!

You can see some of the bread here in this photo. The rolls on the left were the honey-less recipe. The rolls that look a little more golden on the right was the breadbeckers recipe. But, the loaves turned out golden, too, so I think the pale rolls had more to do with cooking them for a little less time. They were totally done in the center, and very soft!


A close-up of the basket.


The perfect roll! Doesn't it just BEG to be dipped in a hot bowl of soup?


After some very "scientific" blind taste testing, the results were in: although the bread was still slightly sweet, it had just a hint of a sour dough flavor. There were no complaints over the change in flavor, and it is now the new, even cheaper bread of choice for our family!

Here is the recipe:

2 cups very hot water
1/4 cup melted butter
2 Tbs molasses
1 egg
1 1/2 Tbs salt
1 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs Lecithin (optional)
1 tsp gluten

Mix all the above ingredients in a bowl or dump into bread machine. Add 2 cups whole wheat flour and 1 Tbs yeast. Mix thoroughly. Add 3 more cups flour, one cup at a time until dough can be turned out on counter and kneaded. Knead for 6 minutes, adding more flour as needed. (if you use the bread machine, add flour until a ball forms in the machine and pulls totally away from the walls. Cover and let rise for about 1 hour or until doubled. Pinch and shape dough into 2 loaves, place in greased bread pans, cover, and let rise again. OR, break off about 1/4 cup dough, roll playdough style into a 6 inch long, 3/4 inch diameter "snake". Tie into a knot, place on greased cookie sheet, cover and let rise again. Bake loaves in 350 oven for 20 min. (or more if needed), bake rolls for about 12 minutes.