100% Whole Wheat Bread

Have you ever had a week where nothing went right?  That was mine last week.  I messed up everything I baked!  I tried a new recipe for carrot cookies, and while my kids loved them, the texture was not quite right to me... they need tweeking.  I thought I would post one of my favorite recipes; a very old recipe in my family that has been passed down for I don't even know how many generations, "gateau chaumard".  I forgot to take pictures as I was making it, then I forgot to turn my oven back to 'bake' from 'broil' and, yep!  I broiled the cake!
The only thing I got right was my bread.  And good thing too!  I make all the bread in our home, so if I messed this up  my children would starve!
 I have a tried quite a few bread recipes and this is by far my favorite.  It is from Robin Hood Flour, and is practically foolproof!  I have even forgotten I was making bread once and let it proof for 2 hours and it STILL produced really good bread!
 This recipe makes 2 9x5 loaves of bread and it freezes beautifully.

To make 100% Whole Wheat Bread, you will need:

• 1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees F)
• 1 tsp honey
• 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp honey
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 5 1/2 cups whole wheat bread flour (I use Robin Hood Best for Bread Four)

Pour 1/2 cup warm water, 1 tsp honey and yeast in a stand mixer bowl.  Let sit 5 minutes to proof yeast.

Meanwhile, measure 3 cups of flour, spoon and sweep method.

 Once yeast is beginning to proof, add remaining warm water, salt, remaining honey, butter and the 3 cups of flour.

 mix with paddle attachment until smooth.

Add 2 more cups of flour, one at a time, Once these 2 cups of flour are incorporated, switch to the bread hook attachment and add last 1/2 cup of flour.

Blend in until dough is pulling away from the sides of the bowl.  It is possible that you may need to add more flour, depending on the humidity levels in your home.  If more flour is needed, add 1 Tbsp at a time.

Knead the dough for 5 minutes.  Your mixer may 'jump' a bit, that's normal.  I tend to rest my arm on the top of my mixer to prevent it from jumping while kneading.

Now, grease a large bowl, (I use canola spray) and place dough in bowl, turning to coat the dough.

Place plastic wrap over bowl and place in a warm place to rise for one hour.

I turn on my oven for 30 seconds @ 350 and let my dough rise in the oven.

 Here is one of my little  "life hacks".  Instead of flouring my counter, I spray a plastic cutting sheet with canola cooking spray and hand knead the dough about 10 times.

Cut the dough in half.

roll out one half at a time to remove any air pockets.

Roll the dough up tightly, folding the end under to fit in pan.

Reheat your oven for another 30 seconds and place both loaves in for a second rise, 45 minutes to 1 hour, until doubled in size and filling the pan.

  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and bake loaves for 20 minutes.

Remove bread from pans immediately and cool on wire racks.

Now, enjoy the fruits of your labor!!!

As there are no preservatives in homemade bread, it is recommended that you store your bread in the refrigerator!