Homemade Wheat Sandwich Bread

Greetings.

I finally found a morning full of motivation and whipped up some bread loaves to get us through the next couple of weeks. Although I have included the recipe below, if you are a beginner baker I would strongly recommend looking at this post which is the original recipe that I have since adapted. There are step by step pictures and instructions that are amazing for your first bread experience. In the original recipe she made white sandwich bread, but below you will find my wheat version. It is not whole wheat, but it is the healthiest, easiest version I have come across so far. I have tried baking 100% whole wheat breads before but they take a lot more time (some recipes up to two days), and I'm not convinced it's worth it. If I do find a recipe that's worth it, I'll be sure to share.

NOTE: If you do not have wheat gluten on hand I would probably just make the white flour version (from the original site). The gluten helps your wheat to rise and ensures you get a soft baked texture. If you do not include it, your bread won't rise as well and will be dense.

2 cups lukewarm water (think of it as a nice bath for your yeast)
2 Tbls. sugar
1 Tbls. dry active yeast
2 Tbls. butter, softened
3 cups all purpose flour + more for kneading the dough
2 cups whole wheat flour

2 Tbls. wheat gluten

1 Tbls. kosher salt

Mix water and sugar - wisk

Add yeast to mixture - wisk

Let it sit for about 5 minutes to make sure your yeast is alive. It should have bubbles and start to look creamy.

Cut up the butter and add to bowl along with all the other dry ingredients. You will want to spoon your flour into the measuring cup and level it off with a knife to be the most accurate.

Use a spatula to mix it as well as you can, then transfer to a floured surface and knead for about 8 minutes. You might need to add more white flour depending on how absorbent your wheat flour is. I have the flour measurements this way because you can always add more flour to get it just right - if there is too much flour it is more complicated. :) You don't want your dough to be wet but soft and elastic.

Transfer to a clean glass bowl that has been sprayed with no-stick (and cover with plastic wrap that has also been sprayed with no-stick) and let rise until it is about 1 and a half it's size. I like to turn my oven on to 200 degrees and once it's warm, shut the oven off and throw the glass bowl in there to help it rise.

After it's risen, punch down the dough, put it back on your floured surface and knead a couple of times.

Using a large knife, cut the dough in half.

Fold the ends in a couple of times to make a nice loaf shape.

Spray two bread pans with no-stick and transfer your loaves.

Let them rise again for about an hour.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and bake for about 35 minutes.

If you tap the top of your loaf, it should sound hollow.

Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes and then take them out of the pans to cool the rest of the way.

Two loaves is a lot to eat in the couple of days before it would go stale, so i slice them both up, wrap them generously in plastic wrap, throw them in a plastic freezer bag and keep them in the freezer until we want some toast!