Whole-Wheat Bread

This is fantastic bread that bears no relation to the dense, chewy, gummy whole wheat bread I’ve made in the past. The crumb is soft, light and airy with a delicious, nutty flavour.

Of course, you do have to invest a little time to achieve these results, though most is just waiting time. This is a 2-day bread that starts with a soaker of whole grain flour and water, and a poolish of whole wheat bread flour, water and yeast.

On day 2, these are combined with the remaining ingredients and kneaded. I included the optional egg and oil as I thought this bread would need all the help it could get. Next time I make it, I’ll exclude these to see what the difference is. After kneading, the dough is left to proof. I set aside lots of time (recipe says 2 hours) for this but it only took an hour. I shaped it into 10 buns as I was planning to serve them with grilled turkey burgers. The buns only took 45 minutes to rise and 22 minutes to bake.

Definitely a bread I would make on a regular basis.