“I want a tomato sandwich,” says my husband. We have no bread in the house, so what does he do? My good man makes some.
My husband loves a good old fashioned tomato sandwich with exactly three ingredients (tomatoes, mayo, and toasted whole wheat bread) and none of them are optional or interchangeable according to him. This time when the need arrived we had some delicious on-the-vine tomatoes, a jar of mayonnaise, and a complete lack of whole wheat bread. Being a guy that loves making bread, this problem merely slowed my boo down. “I’m making bread,” says Dave. I say, “Go for it… I’ll watch and be your cute assistant.” (One of these days I’ll get around to actually making bread by myself, but I figure I’ve got no reason to rush that when there’s already someone in the house who loves to make it.)
I have to admit that I have an aversion with mayo. It’s hard to explain but I find the thought of it gross. However, if there is just a very little bit on a sandwich or a light coating on potato or macaroni salad then I’ll eat it. When I say “very little” I mean you can see some white stuff but it’s virtually non-existent. I won’t go out of my way to avoid something if it touches mayo, but I won’t seek it out and I have to admit that if I have it I’ll likely enjoy it. Does that make sense? See, I told you it’s hard to explain.
Anyway, after a few hours passed by (i.e. time to make the bread) he finally got back to that tomato sandwich since he was finally able to do it properly. Of course he asked me to try the sandwich and of course I declined. Instead I happily enjoyed two pieces of bread with nothing on it. It’s everything that I love about whole wheat bread… it’s hearty, dense, and I feel like it’s more healthy than your standard issue white bread.
Happy that I was enjoying the bread, but genuinely curious about what I would think of his tomato sandwich, he asked me to try it a 3rd or 4th time and I finally gave in and took a bite. It was a total surprise for me, but I actually loved it. Alas, this post is about the bread not the delicious sandwich.
A little bit of warning, this is an absolutely massive bread recipe. It will tax your stand mixer, and it makes two huge loaves that weigh in at almost two pounds each.
Whole Wheat Bread Recipe
(Makes 2 loaves)
Ingredients:
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 2 tablespoons yeast
- 2 tablespoons molasses
- 2 and 3/4 cups warm water
- 5 and 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 2 cups bread flour
Directions:
- Into the bowl of a stand mixer, add the olive oil. (DO NOT clean the measuring cup!)
- Using the oily measuring cup, add the honey. (This will help to keep the honey from being a sticky pain to deal with.)
- Add the salt and yeast to the bowl of the stand mixer.
- Spray your tablespoon measuring spoon with a little cooking spray and then add the molasses to the bowl.
- Add the warm water.
- Turn your mixer on low with the bread hook attachment. (I use speed 2 on my Kitchen Aid mixer.)
- Add the whole wheat flour into the running mixer.
- Add the bread flour into the running mixer. (Leaving it running instead of stopping it for this process greatly reduces the chances of flour all over your kitchen. If you add 7 and 1/2 cups of flour and then turn it on you are likely to be wearing enough flour to look like a ghost.)
- Let the mixer run on low for 3 to 4 minutes.
- Spray a large bowl with cooking spray.
- Transfer the dough into the large bowl.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it somewhere warm to rise for 45 minutes.
- Punch the dough down.
- Spray 2 (9×5 inch) loaf pans with cooking spray and divide the dough evenly between them.
- Place them somewhere warm to rise again for about another 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Bake the loaves in the preheated oven for about 35 minutes.
- Remove the bread from the loaf pans as soon as possible after baking and let them cool on a wire rack.
Adapted from: Food.com
Here are some other delicious creations from Dave.
Yay for homemade bread! This looks wonderful! I seriously love that your husband makes the bread in your house – mine would have no clue!! haha
Hehe. I know I’m SO lucky. 🙂
Yum! The molasses give this bread its beautiful colour. I can’t eat bread because of some dietary issues but I know my boys would love homemade delicious bread for their school lunches. Shared and pinned, of course!
When we saw the molasses in the recipe, we wondered how it would go… It’s a fabulous addition to a bread recipe because it really does enhance the gorgeous brown color. Plus I think it makes the bread taste better.
This is such a staple! Love the texture and versatility of this bread 🙂
Thanks much!