The Best Whole Wheat Bread

This recipe makes five. honkin'. LOAVES.  

I have a Bosch mixer, and I really recommend you don't try to make five loaves unless you also have a heavy-capacity mixer, because kneading bread is tough on those motors.

I originally got this recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe, which has never given me a bum steer, but I did tweak a couple things.  For starters, I used to use honey in this recipe . . . until my grocery budget went through the roof, because we ONLY eat this bread, and I make five loaves about every eight to ten days.  So I always use 2/3 cups sugar instead.   

After they have cooled, I freeze three loaves and get them out as I need them--since there are no preservatives in this bread, it gets moldy quicker than store bread.  I try to get them out the night before they are needed so they can come to room temperature on the counter, but sometimes most of the time I am sawing through frozen bread and toasting it . . .

Risen and ready.  I find I have good results when I put
them in a COLD oven, then turn the oven on
so they rise a teeny bit more before they bake.

Baked and ready for butter brushed on the top

My mother-in-law gave me two stonewear loaf pans from The Pampered Chef years ago--It was such a great gift!  I love how they bake so well that I have bought three more at thrift stores.  Actually, I have bought FIVE more over the years, but broke two of them . . . I am always on the lookout for more, so I have some ready for the next time I have a baking accident (just like on Into the Woods).  My loaf pans are so seasoned that the bread slides right out every time (but I DON'T recommend stonewear for any sweet bread [pumpkin, zucchini, Amish friendship, etc]--it sticks like crazy).

*Side note- I rarely buy bread unless I am:

• making French toast
• pregnant, and therefore too moody to make bread
• deep in the summer of the COVID pandemic when even baking brought me no joy

I also always add a cup of 5-grain cereal that I buy in the bulk section at Winco.  It has rolled oats, rye, barley, triticale (triticale is a hybrid of wheat and rye), and flax seed.  I like to add whole grains because it makes your body digest the bread more slowly--so that the bread is not turning straight into sugar in your bloodstream.  Plus I love the chewy little bits--it's such a good texture.

So here you go, my second recipe card in a lonnnnnng time, and the recipe that I bake the very most.

Bonus photo: Brigham came home from cross-country practice in his shorts that he nicknamed "Minty Magic" and said, "Yes!  I love coming home to bread!  It's my favorite thing to see!" and proceeded to eat half a loaf.