Awesome bread recipe!!! From Stacey

I have become quite the bread maker lately!  Here is a recipe for organic whole wheat honey bread that my whole family LOVES!  Let me know how it works for you!  -Stacey

Organic Whole Wheat Honey Bread

3 cups (give or take) organic whole wheat flour

3 cups (give or take) organic WHITE whole wheat flour (or you can just use ALL wheat flour if you want)

1/3 cup pure honey

1 package active dry yeast (2 ¼ teaspoon)

2 teaspoons sea salt

3 tablespoons melted unsalted butter

-          Mix 3 cups organic whole wheat flour with 1 ½ cup warm water in a large glass bowl.  Allow this to sit for about 30 minutes. (This will break down the gluten and help the bread rise better) 

-       Meanwhile in a small bowl mix together ¼ cup water, 2 ¼ teaspoons yeast and 1/3 cup honey.  Allow this to sit for about 10 minutes or until the yeast is activated and mixture becomes bubbly.

-          Melt 3 tablespoons of butter and set aside.  Add 2 teaspoons salt to the butter.  (You don’t want the hot butter to kill the yeast).

-       Pour the butter/salt over the flour/water mixture and then pour the yeast mixture over that.  Start mixing it all together.  Now gradually add the White Wheat flour slowly and keep mixing until the dough is not sticky anymore. (It seems to me I only use about 1 ½ cups of flour before it is the way I like it.  Just add enough to make a nice, non-sticky dough).

-          Knead the dough for about 10 minutes with your hands.  Place the dough back in the bowl to rise (until it has doubles in size).  Cover the bowl with a warm damp towel and I put it on my oven under the light.  (For at least an hour).

Using a floured hand, pull the dough out of the bowl onto the counter.  Knead for about 4 minutes (cut the dough in half to make two loaves of bread).  Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick and put your two loaves on it (I prefer the bread this way as opposed to in a loaf pan just personal preference).  Cover the bread again with the warm damp towel and let it rise again for about an hour to double in size.

-          Preheat the oven to 350.

-       Beat an egg in a bowl and brush the top and sides of the bread with the egg wash just before you put it in the oven.  Bake for 30 minutes uncovered (or until the bread sounds hollow when you thump the bottom of it).  The recipe I followed said to bake it for 45 minutes but that was in a loaf pan and her bread looks really brown which I didn’t want.  Before I started using the cookie sheet instead of the loaf pan my bread would come out with the center uncooked… But when I put it on the sheet it was perfect.