Perfect Wheat Grain Bread

I mentioned earlier that I have been working on the perfect bread recipes. I have already posted my favorite combination of White Bread ingredients. So now for the wheat. They say that third time is a charm – it was in my case. I’m afraid that I had to tweak the recipe slightly and figure out the sweetener that worked best.

Bread #1 – was really thick and didn’t rise much

Bread #2 – while good tasting, it fell in the middle before it was done cooking. I also learned that if I leave the house before the bread is done and neglect to take the bread out of the machine right when it is finished, the bread continues to cook in the heat and gets a little too crunchy.

Bread #3 – Perfect. Tastes fantastic. Toasts to perfection and raised twice the size as bread #1.

For the grains I used what I had. I had old fashioned oats and flax seeds. I put the 1/4 in my bullet and ground them so it would mix into the bread and not be obvious (didn't want to give my son a reason why not to eat it). 

Here it is:

Wheat Grain Bread - FOR 1 1/2 LB. BREAD MACHINE 1 1/2 cups       water 2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil 1/4 cup            honey 2 1/2 cups       white whole wheat or whole wheat flour 1 cup                unbleached bread flour 1/4 cup            sunflower, oats, sesame and/or flax seeds 1 tablespoon   vital wheat gluten 1 tablespoon   wheat germ 1 1/2 tsp         salt 1 1/2 tsp         yeast Put all of the ingredients into the bread pan in the order listed. Program for basic bread, and press Start. Take a look at the dough after it's kneaded for about 10 to 12 minutes or so; it should be smooth, not sticky (too little flour) or lumpy (too little liquid), forming a nice ball. If the dough looks good at this point, you're all set.