Honey Whole-Wheat Sandwich Bread

 

We love bread in this house. One of the very first changes we started to make in our food, besides cutting out food dyes, was to start making all of our bread products from scratch.  We already bought seemingly good-quality, whole-wheat bread from the store, but there are so many preservatives added that we decided homemade bread would be a better way to go.  I already made the occasional loaf in the oven, but once I "borrowed" the lonely little bread machine from my parents garage (thanks, Mom!) I had an easier way to make homemade bread on a regular basis.

Bread machines are amazing.  You spend five minutes or less throwing all the ingredients in the machine, and a few hours later you have hot, fresh, homemade bread!  And with achy, arthritis hands, I don't have to spend time kneading the dough.  I played around with some basic recipes until I found one that tastes good and still has a great texture to it. This is NOT 100% whole-wheat, but it has more whole-wheat flour than all-purpose (or bread) flour.  We have tried numerous, 100% whole-wheat recipes for sandwich bread, but they also seemed lacking in the taste and texture department.  I only use a high-quality, all-purpose flour from the mill down the street, so I feel okay using this in my recipes. So, without further ado, here is the recipe!

Honey Whole-Wheat Sandwich Bread

Ingredients:

    9 ounces warm water (110 degrees)

    1 tsp salt

    2 tbsp olive oil (or other vegetable oil)

    1/4 cup honey

    1 cup bread flour (or all-purpose flour)

    2 cups whole-wheat flour

    1.5 tsp active dry yeast

Instructions:

    1. Put ingredients into bread machine in the order listed

    2. Choose the "Whole-Wheat" setting on "Light Crust" and press start!

*Printable Version*

Also, once I was making bread on a regular basis, I realized I needed to find a better way to keep it fresh in my kitchen. I discovered this little bread keeper on Amazon and we've loved it ever since!