100% Whole Wheat Honey Bread

This bread is made totally with wheat flour. Most wheat breads have a mix of white and wheat flours. Not this one. It is also flavored with honey instead of sugar.
If you thought that whole wheat flour bread dough will not rise like white flour bread dough, you will quickly realize that is not the case.

You will need three 8-1/2"x4-1/2" bread pans, greased

Ingredients:

Approximately 9-10 cups whole wheat flour
4 teaspoons salt
4-1/2 teaspoons(2 packages) dry yeast
1-1/2 cups milk
1-1/2 cups water
1/2 cup honey
6 Tablespoons butter, plus more for brushing

In a very large mixing bowl, blend 3 cups of the flour, salt, and yeast.
Set aside.
In a saucepan over low heat, combine the milk, water, honey, and butter.
When the mixture is warm, gradually add it to the flour mixture in the large bowl.
With a mixer, beat at medium speed for 2 minutes.
Scrape down the bowl and add an additional cup of flour.
Beat with the mixer at high speed for 3 minutes.
Add more flour and stir in with a spoon. When too thick to stir with a spoon, mix it in with your hands until a soft mass is formed.
Flour a counter.
Turn out the dough and cover it with the bowl and let rest for 10 minutes.
Knead the dough, adding flour as needed if the dough seems very moist.
Make sure to not add much more flour than the 10 cups called for.
Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic. This will take about 8 minutes.
Wash out your large bowl and grease it.
Drop the dough into it, turning over to grease it all over.
Cover with plastic wrap and put in warm place until the dough has doubled in size. This will take about an hour.
When the dough has risen, punch down the dough and turn it out unto your counter.
Divide into three equal pieces. Shape into leaves.
Put into loaf pans.
Cover pans with a towel and let rise until double.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Bake the loaves for about 40 minutes.
The loaves will be deep brown and when you tap them, they will have a hollow sound.
Remove from the oven and turn out of pans.
Brush each loaf with butter.

This bread is great served with honey or even to make sandwiches.



These are also great for dinner rolls. Roll some of the dough into balls and place in a greased pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes.

Baking With Honey

Honey is a great substitute for sugar in many recipes.

Honey is better for you and has a lower glycemic index than sugar so it won't cause as much havoc with blood sugar- especially if you need to be watching it for health reasons such as diabetes.

Raw honey is better for you than pasteurized, since the heat will destroy many of the healing properties in raw honey.
So, baking with raw honey may destroy some of the healing properties. But, maybe not all.

So raw or pasteurized in baking doesn't really matter much.
Just your preference.

The taste of honey in baked goods is a bit different, but it is very good.

You can find recipes calling for honey or you can choose to substitute.

When a recipe calls for sugar, you can substitute 3/4 cup honey for every cup of sugar called for.
You may also need to reduce any other liquid in the recipe by up to 1/4 cup.
If no other liquid in is the recipe- like for cookies-, add up to 1/4 cup flour.

Making Your Own Honey Mustard

This recipe came about for a few reasons.

One, I had bought mustard in bulk and had a big container of honey.

Two, I realized we eat honey mustard way more often then plain mustard.

Three, I read the labels on the honey mustard at the store and was amazed many brands don't even have honey in them, but HCFS and also other kinds of sweeteners. I try to avoid high fructose corn syrup as much as possible.

Ingredients:

A very generous 1/3 cup honey

A very generous 2/3 cup yellow mustard

1-2 Tablespoons brown sugar- optional

Combine the mustard and honey in a saucepan. Add the brown sugar if you think you need the extra sweetness.

Bring to a sputtering simmer and stir occasionally for about 5 minutes.

Cool slightly and pour into a glass jar.

Since it thins out some as it cooks together, you will get 1-1/2 to 2 cups honey mustard.