Whole Wheat Bread Success!

I think I've bought about five loaves of bread over the last four or five years. I've made the rest. Yes, we don't eat much during the summer since it is often too hot to turn on the oven and there was a notable lack of bread when I had a newborn in the house but ultimately it has been a worthwhile endeavor. Bread days are the best day of the week for us. What can beat the smell and taste of a fresh baked loaf?  There is just something good about it.

There are a number of recipes I've come to love. Recipes for purple potato rolls, sweet roll dough, rosemary focaccia, pizza dough, banana bread, tortillas...but a good 100% whole wheat bread has eluded me. I have a wonderful one that involves quinoa. I make  it often but the grain is a bit expensive and it requires a third a cup of molasses so the recipe wasn't really practical for everyday and would certainly get expensive a few years down the road as our family grows. I developed a good recipe over the last few months but it too involved a good bit of  honey (honey is expensive!), an egg, and powdered milk...it just wasn't quite what I was looking for.

I want something easy, with a good texture (who hasn't tried to make a loaf of bead only to end up with a brick?) AND I want a simple recipe without a lot of added ingredients AND I want something that will taste good the next day...and the next. Nothing worse than a sandwich on dry bread!

I've found this in this awesome 100% whole wheat sourdough bread. The sourdough flavor us mild so you can use the bread for sweet or savory recipes. It rises beautifully and keeps well. Sourdough is intimidating for some but I've found out to be surprisingly simple!  This recipe does take a but of forethought, but not much! I've start it the night before but I've also stared it early the morning of.

THE RECIPE:
The night  before you bake: Around dinner time the night before your want to bake your bread remove one cup of sour dough starter from the fridge and place in a large mixing bowl. Feed the starter a half cup water and a half cup whole wheat flour. Allow to sit in a warm place for a few hours. Before bedtime stir in three cups of water and four cups of whole wheat flour. Cover the bowl and place in a draft free place overnight.

THE DAY OF:
Pull out mixture from the night before. It should be bubbly, slightly risen and have a yeasty, slightly sour smell. Stir in the following ingredients:

1 tbls salt
1/3 cup cooking oil

Add about five-six cups of whole wheat flour slowly, a half cup at a time, until the dough is sticky but managable. Do not add too much flour! Knead the dough, adding just enough flour to keep from sticking, until smooth. Return to the bowl and let rise until double. Shape into loaves and place the loaves in greased pans. Let rise until loaves are just past the top of the pan.

I can't tell you just how long to let it rise. This isn't quick acting yeast so the time will vary based on the activity of your starter, temperature of the room, etc. Just check in on it every hour or so.  Bake at 375° for 35-45 minutes until the top is browned and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Allow to cool (if you can keep you hands off it!) and serve.

Don't have a sourdough starter? There are numerous websites with good information on how to start one. You can get some from a friend (like me!). Or websites like this one will send you some for next to nothing! Pretty cool huh? Care of you sourdough starter is easy too and again a little online research will yield a ton of information on doing just that. They're pretty hard to kill...I neglected mine in the back of the fridge for more than two months and it revived quite nicely.

If anyone is curious...his name is Griswald...