Sarah's No Fail Bread Tutorial

This is a homemade bread tutorial. I hope to come back and add some pics later, and variations.

Sarah’s No Fail Whole Wheat Bread
Makes 3 Generous Loaves (About 24 oz per loaf)
Also makes tasty dinner rolls, hamburger buns, hotdog buns….

You can freeze this bread.

Ingredients
4 Cups Whole Wheat Flour

2 Tablespoons Instant Yeast (2 Packages)
1 Tablespoon Salt
3 ¼ Cups White Flour (Plus another 1 Cup more Set Aside)

2 Tablespoons Honey

½ Cup Butter OR Coconut Oil OR Vegetable Oil

2 Cups Milk

2 Cups Water

Grease 3 Bread Pans with Butter. Then put them off to the side. If it is a hot day, put your buttered pans in the fridge so the butter can re-solidify creating a nonstick layer.
Option: Grease the pans with coconut oil then dust with flour. Place in Fridge. 

Option: Grease 2 pans and 1 cupcake pan OR casserole dish. At the end of the recipe you can roll some of the dough into rolls. 

First Rise

In a stand Mixer, mix together 4 cups Whole Wheat Flour, Instant Yeast, and Salt. If you do not have a stand mixer you can still make this bread! Just be ready to do LOTS Of hand mixing! 

In a separate glass bowl, combine the butter, Honey, Milk and water. Warm up in the Microwave for 1 minute then mix. Warm up for 30 seconds more, and mix again. it should be no more than luke warm. Think baby bottle temperature. 

Pour milk mixture into whole wheat flour mixture and mix well with a paddle (or spoon) until everything is combined. Let it sit 5 minutes then mix again. This is to ensure the wheat flour has ample time to “bloom” and absorb the wet ingredients. At this point you will have something that is similar in consistency to either thick pancake batter or muffin batter. Your choice of butter/oil affects this consistency. Anything along this spectrum is ok. 

Change out the paddle for a bread hook. (Or get your arm muscles warmed up to stir with a wooden spoon). Begin to add in the White Flour 1 cup at a time, thoroughly mixing each addition in until it is fully combined. After all 3 ¼ cups have been added, let the dough sit once again for 5 minutes allowing this new flour to “bloom”. 

At this point, you will most likely  have a “shaggy” dough. A shaggy Dough is sticky and does not hold onto the hook in a ball. When you hold it in your hands it “oozes”. The state of the dough at this point depends wholly upon the amount of humidity that is in your house at this time. On a rainy day, by this point the dough could be very sticky-shaggy.  On a dry day, the dough could be ready for a 1st rise. You will know if it is ready for a first rise as it will be pulling slightly away from the sides of the bowl as though it wants to form a ball but it won’t hang onto the hook fully. Dough that is ready for the first rise will “flow” from the sides of your hand vs. “Oozing”. Pick up your dough and hold it. Trust me you will know the difference.  If your dough is still in the oozy sticky phase, slowly work in that additional 1 cup of flour, by kneading it in with the mixer or by hand in the bowl, ¼ of a cup at a time. 

At this point it is better to error on the sticky side. If you aren’t sure...stop adding flour!! Cover your bowl with a piece of greased saran wrap, then place a warm wet kitchen towel over the top and set aside to rise. 

It will take about 1 hour for this first rise. Some days it may take 2. Again, this depends on weather and air humidity in your home. Once the dough has doubled in size, or is on the verge of breaking out of its bowl captivity,  it is ready for the 2nd rise. 

2nd Rise

Liberally Sprinkle your counter down with flour. White flour is best here. Wheat will be fine in a pinch BUT it soaks up more moisture, so you will want to be less liberal. 

Here’s the scary part. You will wonder what you have gotten yourself into when you see how much dough plops out. DUMP the whole bowl of dough out onto the floured counter and then sprinkle the top with flour. It will be sticky. It will look like that last bit of flour you added at the end before the 1st rise, did no good. It is ok. Be prepared to get sticky hands. Begin to mix/knead by hand, sprinkling flour as needed until it comes together into a soft squishy ball. It will be very pliable and malleable. Like Soft Playdough.

Cut it into 3 even chunks using a bread knife.

Working with 1 chunk at a time, use a rolling pin and roll the dough out into an 8”x12” rectangle like shape. It doesn’t need to be perfect. Starting from the narrow end near you, begin to roll the rectangle up into a log, tucking the outside ends under and in as you go. Pinch the seam at the end closed and tuck the sides under so it is all sealed up like a burrito. Place this log into one of your prepped pans, seam side down. 

Continue with the remaining two chunks of dough. 

**Shaping Options: At this point, you could cut 1 section of dough into 10-12 pieces, and roll them into dinner rolls. Flatten each roll piece into a circle, then pinch the edges up and together forming a ball. Place seam side down into a muffin cup. OR you could make 10-12 small hamburger buns!  Leave it as a flattened disc, place on a floured baking sheet, leaving 3-4 inches in between each disc. ***

Once you have all of your dough in pans, place the pans in a COLD oven on the middle rack and cover them again with a clean wet dish towel, but NO saran Wrap. The Saran Wrap usually will stick to the dough and cause it to be “punched down” mid rise. Fill a soup bowl with HOT tap water and place it in the bottom of your oven. 

Let it rise for 30 minutes and remove the dish towel. Let rise another 1-2 hours. Check on it every 30 minutes until it is as tall as you want, but don’t let it start to get a mushroom shaped dome over the edge of the pan.

Remove the pans carefully so as not to deflate the rise. Remove the bowl of water and preheat oven to 375. Bake BREAD loaves for 27-30 minutes, until the bread sounds hollow when you flick the top of the dough. Bake Rolls or hamburger buns for 18-20 minutes, until they sound hollow when flicked. 

Once done, remove the bread from the Oven. Let it cool on the counter for no more than 5 minutes. Carefully turn the bread out of the pans onto a cooling rack, and let cool completely before you cut into it. Hamburger buns can now be sliced across the center. 

Additional fun things:
*Cinnamon Bread: Before you roll the dough into a log, spread a bit of melted butter, cinnamon and a few tablespoons of sugar on the dough. Roll it up. 

*Cheesy Bread: Before you roll the dough into a log, spread a bit of melted butter and sprinkle some shredded cheese and onion powder.