Better-than-basic Wheat Bread

Total Time: 1 hr 20 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 50 mins

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 3 cups bread flour (approx.)
• 3 cups wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 2 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature,in chunks

Recipe

• 1 pour the yeast and 1/2 c.
• 2 of the water in the bowl of your mixer.
• 3 let proof about 5-10 minutes.
• 4 meanwhile, mix the flours, the salt and sugar together.
• 5 when the yeast has proofed, pour in the remaining 2 c.
• 6 water, and 1/2 the flour mixture, and with the dough hook attachment, mix on med-low speed, stopping to scrape down the sides occasionally until all is combined.
• 7 add the remaining flour and mix on very low speed until the dough becomes smooth and elastic.
• 8 this could take a while.
• 9 if the dough requires more flour, use bread flour.
• 10 add the butter, a tablespoon at a time, and mix until incorporated.
• 11 don't freak out if your dough comes apart with the addition of the butter.
• 12 continue to mix it and after a while, it will come back together.
• 13 either continue to knead in your machine until smooth and elastic, or remove from the mixer and knead by hand (i always do the last 5-10 minutes of kneading by hand.).
• 14 put the dough into a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap then a towel, and set aside to rise (about 2- 3 hours- this dough seems to be slow to rise, but that's okay- slow rise is better than fast rise.) at this point, you could refrigerate the dough overnight before proceeding to panning.
• 15 once the dough has more than doubled in bulk, punch it down and divide into two loaves.
• 16 place the dough into greased loaf pans, and set aside to rise again.
• 17 i have noticed that this tends to take at least 1 1/2 hours, maybe 2.
• 18 preheat the oven to 375 degrees f.
• 19 when the loaves are ready, pop them in the oven and bake until done, about 45-50 minutes.
• 20 remove from the oven and cool before wrapping.
• 21 *note:you can certainly use regular wheat flour, but i've been using king arthurs whole wheat flour.
• 22 if you can get it, give it a try.
• 23 great flavor.
• 24 you can substitute ap flour for the bread flour, but your texture will be different.
• 25 bread flour gives this bread a much more sturdy texture and a better form.