"Always Soft" Whole Wheat Bread

There is a story to this special recipe. A lady I know (who is still very close to me), makes this wonderful "always soft" whole wheat bread. In fact, I would take a loaf of this bread as payment for babysitting on many occasions when I was little and it was well worth it. Sometimes I happened to be there to watch her in action as she made this bread.What seemed to me like a whole day's worth of work and concentration was only a little over a hour out of her day and hardly worth sweating over. This all came right out of her head and never from a paper. One day, after I finished babysitting, she explained how to make this bread while I watched her and I quickly wrote it down. I was so exited to make it when I got home. It wasn't until yesterday (15 years later) that I pulled out that old paper along with a typed copy from a church cookbook that she submitted it to years ago. I was anxious to complete the challenge of making Rebecca's "Always soft" whole wheat bread and, I finally did. Now that I am older, it didn't seem nearly as difficult as I had made it out to be but, there is one thing that still separates hers from mine. Hers will always be the real thing and mine will always be a duplicate.

Thank you Rebecca for taking me down memory lane!  

Rebecca's "Always Soft" Whole Wheat Bread Recipe:

  This recipe is separated into parts and then combined.

Part 1: In a Sauce Pan

Ingredients- 1 medium potato 1 teaspoon of salt 2 cups of water

Directions: Scrub and wash potato really well and slice into disks. Simmer in water and salt for 30 minutes.

Part 2: In a blender 

Ingredients- Butter 3/4 Cup (melted) Honey  3/4 Cup 1 Tablespoon of Salt 

Directions: Blend until smooth.            

 

Add Part 1 into 2 and Blend until smooth.Allow it to get warm. You can't have it too hot to kill the yeast.

Part 3: In a Medium bowl

Ingredients-

1/2 teaspoon of sugar

1/2 cup of warm water

3 Tablespoons of Active Dry Yeast

Directions:

Mix sugar in warm water until dissolved, add yeast to warm water in bowl and set aside.

(I mixed it together just a little bit)

It will begin to double in size. Mine went up to 2 cups.

Part 4: In a Large mixing bowl

Ingredients-

2 eggs

3/4 cup Evaporated Milk
Directions:

Beat eggs and milk together

  

Addition of ingredients

3 cups of Whole Wheat Flour

2 cups of Gluten Flour

Up to 8 more cups of whole wheat flour

Directions:

Add Warm blender mixture (Parts 1&2 blended) to Milk mixture (part 4).

Rinse blender with 1 1/2 cups of warm water and add back into large mixing bowl.

Mix together and began adding 3 cups Whole Wheat Flour and 2 cups Gluten Flour. Mix again.

Slowly add in yeast mixture (part 3). Rinse yeast bowl with 1 cup of warm water and mix back into dough.

Continue to add 2-6 cups of wheat flour until it reaches a gluten like stage (like thick bubble gum).

Mix for 10 minutes.

Let dough rest for 20 minutes covered with plastic or damp towel.

Knead with more whole wheat flour until it gets to the right consistency (up to 4 cups if needed).

Do not add too much flour, wheat bread is supposed to be sticky.

When it feels good, place back into bowl and coat with Olive Oil and cover.

Let it rest for another 20 minutes until it doubles in size.

Cut into 4-6 loaves and place into butter pans. Cover and let them rest in their pans for 5-7 minutes before pre-heating the oven. Allow them to rise for an additional 15-20 minutes and then bake @ 350 for 22-25 minutes.

*If your house is warm, you might have to reduce the raising time of the dough as it will rise faster. The dough is also affected  in a colder house (you might have to allow as much as 30 min for dough to raise).

A few Ideas: Re-use old bread bags to store your homemade bread. Make mini loaves using a mini loaf pan.

This bread is perfect for sandwiches and excellent when toasted.

I honestly felt like making chili or stew when I made this bread. It has the texture of a soft roll.