Milk and Honey Whole Wheat Bread

There's a dramatic change in my life. I go to bed by 10pm and wake up before dawn. Who said the days are longer when you are up early? My days are definitely shorter. All these things that I used to do at night, I couldn't find the time to do them. These three Netflix DVD have been on my desk for weeks - unwatched. I couldn't find time to write a new post here since February 23. I couldn't finish my knitting project I started since the last life time.

I would like to think because I was born in a tiger year, I am more productive at night.

But one must embrace change. So here it is - a post in the middle of the day.



This bread is an adapted version of King Arthur Flour's Classic 100% Whole Wheat Bread. I omitted butter/oil, reduced the sweetener amount and used whole milk instead of water. The bread came out very similar to the original. So why change the classic? I needed to use up all the milk. I couldn't drink a whole glass of milk. That would be very very bad to my digestive system. So I baked it.



Ingredients

• 14 oz. whole wheat flour


• 1/4 oz. salt


• 1/4 oz. instant yeast


• 1 oz honey


• 9 to 10 oz. milk

Directions

1. With an electric mixer at the lowest speed, stir all the ingredients together for 5 minutes. Let rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Run the mixer again for 5 more minutes. Add more flour if the dough is to sticky or more milk if the dough is to dry.


2. Ball up the dough, and let rise in a bowl covered with a plastic wrap for 1 to 1 and a half hours until the dough almost double. I used cold milk from the refrigerator so I took almost 2 hours for the dough to rise properly.


3. Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Gently deflate the dough. Form the dough into a log. Here's what I do -- press into a rectangular shape. Fold in the top quarter. Fold in the bottom quarter. Then fold the dough in half. Crimp the middle seam and the seams at both ends of the log.


4. Place into a lightly greased bread pan. Lightly oil a plastic wrap and loosely cover. Let rise for about 1 more hour until the dough rise up about an inch above the pan.


5. About 20 minutes before the dough is ready, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.


6. Bake for 35 minutes. Turn out the bread and let cool for at least an hour on a cooling rack before cutting.