Whole Wheat Bread

7 C. whole wheat flour

1 C. white flour

2 1/2 Tb. yeast

Mix together in bowl. (Best if wheat flour can be ground right before you need it.)

Add:

5 C. hot water

Mix for one minute.

Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.

Add:

1 heaping Tb. salt

2/3 C. honey or 1 C. sugar

2/3 C. oil

2 1/2 Tb. lemon juice (bottled works fine, it is a dough conditioner)

Mix for one minute

Add:

5 C. flour, one cup at a time

Mix in between cups. Add flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. (I have never needed all 5 cups. I will post a picture of what this looks like the next time I make bread. I believe this step is the key to awesome bread.)

This is getting close, so at this point I add flour 2/1 C. at a time until the dough looks like this:

The dough is cleaning the sides of the bowl, but is still sticky.

Beat for 8 minutes. Grease pans. Makes 4 big loaves or 6 smaller loaves. Form into loaves on the counter with oil.

Put into a cold oven and wait for the loaves to raise about one inch (10-15 minutes). Then turn the oven on to 350 and set the timer for 30-40 minutes. Cook until golden brown.

This is the best whole wheat bread recipe ever. I gave up on making homemade bread for awhile because I wasn't very successful in Denver (could have something to do with altitude), but this recipe is really easy. And really yummy! I would be curious to know if someone at high altitude makes this bread, comment and let me know how it turns out!

*For those of you using a Bosch white bowl: the dough does climb the center of the bowl during the eight minute beating. I just clean my bowl immediately to get out the little bit of dough that often gets stuck in the middle.

This recipe is too big for just my family, so I will be posting size variations soon! (That helps with the bowl problem too!)