Whole Grain Cooking Club

My mom is a terrific baker and I grew up with fresh baked bread throughout my childhood.  I can only aspire to make bread as good as she can someday.  Typically, she made bread with white flour, but lately she's been baking with more whole grains.

I've been doing the same and so we share the notes from our kitchen experiments.  We've formed our own little cooking club of sorts.

Here's her latest success that she shared with me...

Whole Wheat Bread
Makes 2 loaves

1 1/2 Tbsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
2 cups milk
1/4 cup oil
2 Tbsp agave nectar
1 Tbsp honey
1/2 Tbsp kosher salt
2 - 3 cups white all-purpose flour
3 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup wheat germ
1 Tbsp flaxseed meal

In a large bowl dissolve yeast in warm water.  Warm the milk and stir in oil, sweetener, and salt.  When cool to the touch combine with dissolved yeast.

Add 2 cups of all-purpose flour, the whole wheat flour, the wheat germ, and flaxseed.  Blend thoroughly.

Turn out onto a floured surface and knead dough about 10 minutes, adding as much white flour as necessary to keep dough from sticking.  When it is smooth and elastic turn the dough into a clean and greased bowl.

Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise in a draft-free place until doubled in bulk.  It took me about 90 minutes.

Punch the down down, knead about 1 minute, then shape into 2 loaves and put in greased 8-inch loaf pans.  Cover with a towel and let rise until dough just swells over top of pans.  My dough needed a little over an hour.

Bake in preheated 425 degree F oven 10 minutes, then turn heat down to 350 degrees F, and bake 25 minutes longer, until loaf sounds hollow when tapped with a finger.  Cool on racks.