Bran Enriched White Bread

Need a little fiber in your diet? Try this bread, it rises great, makes great toast and awesome sandwhiches. Its by far the best bread I have made so far, again from the book Artisian Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.

Bran Bread
3 cups luke warm water
1 1/2 tbsp granulated yeast
1 1/2 tbsp Kosher salt
3/4 cup wheat bran
5 3/4 cup all purpose flour
Put the first 3 ingredients in a large bowl or lidded container. Mix the last 2 in another bowl. Add the flour mix slowly stirring well. When mixed cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temp for 2 hours. Then refridgerate until ready to use, up to 14 days. On baking day dust dough with flour and cut off about half of it, adding more flour to ball and quickly shaping it into a ball by turning the sides under. Put it in a greased loaf pan and let it rise 40 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 and dust the top of the loaf with flour and cut slits in it. Bake for about 30 minutes until its browned on top and allow to cool completely before cutting.

Whole Wheat Bread

After looking around for a while to find the best wheat bread recipe, I decided to use the one in the book, Artisan bread in five minutes a day. Mostly I decided this because I found the right flour it says to use. I found it at walmart, I used Hodgson mills white wheat flour, its not a graham flour but made out of hard white wheat.

Here is the recipe:
Whole Wheat Bread
1 1/2 cups luke warm water
1 1/2 cups luke warm milk (I used canned milk)
1 1/2 tbsp yeast (2 packets)
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup honey
5 tbsp neutral tasting oil (I used olive oil)
6 2/3 cups whole wheat flour, not graham flour
In a large bowl or lidded container, mix the yeast, salt, honey, oil, milk and water. Stir it a bit, it will look like this.


 Add flour a little at a time until incorporated well. Cover with plastic wrap and a towel and let rise at room temperature until the dough rises and collapes or flattens on top.

 This takes about 2-3 hours. You can use it right away or store it covered in fridge for 5 days. When your ready to bake, grease your pan and using wet hands scoop out a cantaloupe size 1 1/2 pound portion of dough. Keep your hands wet and quickly shape in into a ball and elongate into an oval. Put it in the pan, it should fill it slightly more than half full. Let it rest for 1 hour and 40 minutes, flour the top and slash it with a serated knife. Preheat oven to 350 and put a pan on the bottom rack. When preheated put loaf in oven and 1 cup of hot water in the pan, quickly closing the door. Bake for 50 or 60 minutes until deeply browned and firm, allow to cool completely before slicing. Sorry I didnt get a picture of the finished product, we tore into it too fast, lol.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

This bread is awesome and super tastey. It never lasts too long at our house and makes excellent toast for breakfast. To make it you have to make the buttermilk bread dough below and refrigerate it.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread
1 1/2 pounds (cantaloupe sized piece) of Buttermilk bread dough
Butter or neutral tasting oil to grease pan
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup raisins
egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp of water)
Lightly grease pan and set aside. Dust the top of the refrigerated dough and cut off 1 1/2 pound piece. Dust the piece with more flour and quickly turn the sides under turning the ball as you go. Roll it out in a rectangle like appearance keeping it about 1/4" thick, using more flour as needed. Using a pastry brush spread on egg wash covering the entire surface. Mix cinnamon and sugar together and sprinkle on dough evenly as possible. Then sprinkle on raisins evenly. Starting at the short side roll it up jelly roll style. Pinch the edges and ends together and tuck the ends under. Place in pan and allow to rest 1 hour and 40 minutes. Then preheat the oven to 375, and bake 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown. Then remove it from the pan and allow to cool completely before cutting.