Whole Wheat Bread

Today's (Actually, Last Week's But I'm Just Getting to Posting It...) Frugal Success: Whole Wheat Bread
It's so yummy, I couldn't keep my 2 year old's hands off it!


Story:
My husband comes from a very large family - 8 kids and 2 adults. At one point they had kids ranging from elementary school to high school, and teenage boys involved in athletics with voracious appetites smack dab in the middle. My mother in law said they would go through 20+ loaves of store-bought white bread a week! She decided to start making her own whole wheat bread in hopes of upping the nutritional content and "full factor," thus decreasing the number of loaves they went through each week. It worked - the weekly consumption rate dropped to 9-10 loaves instead.

I don't have 8 children (just 2 itty-bitty ones), but we are still definite bread lovers around here. And I'm not talking the fluffy store-bought white bread. We love hearty, wholesome, whole wheat bread. I do still buy the fluffy store bought bread to have on hand for sandwiches (since I sometimes think the hearty stuff overpowers the sandwich), but for our morning toast, bread with soup, and for delicious and wholesome snacking, we prefer the "good stuff".

We go through about 2 loaves a week and I wanted to see the cost difference between just buying the "good stuff" vs. making it myself.

I bought these ingredients at Walmart (except the homemade applesauce), and here's what I found out:


2 loaves homemade: $2.50
2 loaves store bought: $7.00-$10.00 (depending on the brand)

This is using store bought whole wheat. I know it would be even less expensive if I ground my own wheat (that will have to be another post...) With our rate of consumption, I'm thinking the effort I take to make my own each week, which has gone down considerably since I make it so often and have a "system" now, is absolutely a frugal success!

Here's the recipe I use - I found it on this blog, so I can't take credit for it!

Holly's Famous Bread Recipe (I used the ground flax seed)

1 1/2 cup Warm Water
1/3 cup Brown Sugar
1 TBSP & 1 tsp Yeast
1 cup Bread White Flour
4-6 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/2 cup Warm Unsweetened Applesauce
2 tsp Salt
1/4 cup Oil or 1 cup Ground Flax Seed

Grease two loaf pans. Put yeast, water and brown sugar in mixing bowl. Let stand until bubbly and doubled. Add remaining ingredients. Mix and let rise until doubled in size. Knead down and divide into loaf pans. Let rise again. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. **Splenda brown sugar may be substituted, use half of the amount called for. \



Here are a couple of other great bread recipes from people I trust!

Mom's Wheat Bread (as in my husband's mom)

6 cups hot water
2 T dry yeast
1/4 cup oil
3/4 cup honey
2 T salt
2 T lecithin* - granule or liquid
12-15 cups whole wheat flour
3 vitamin C tablets (grind with the wheat)

*Liquid lecithin is the color and consistency of dark honey and is a mess to measure. If you use it, just eyeball the measurement.

Pre-heat oven to lowest setting and then turn off. Sprinkle yeast in water. Pour oil in bottom of 1 cup measuring cup and fill rest of way with honey, then pour into yeast and water. Let sit a few minutes. Add salt and lecithin and half of wheat with vitamin C in it. Mix well and add remaining flour just until dough isn’t sticky anymore. Remove to counter lightly coated with oil. Knead into a rounded mound. Let rest 10-15 minutes while you oil the pans and clean up a little. Divide bread into 3 large loaves. Shape and put into pans. Put pans in warm oven and let rise 20-30minutes. Leave dough in oven, turn on to 350 and bake for ½ hour (including preheating time). Remove and let cool in pans about 10 minutes. Remove from pans, cool completely and wrap in plastic.



Homemade Bread - Lindsay’s Way (from Passionate Homemaking)

Makes 4 loaves
I make this recipe once a month, and freeze them, and we are set!

4 1/2 cups water
2 1/2 Tablespoons active dry yeast (or 2 packages)
1 tsp honey (for activating yeast)
1 ½ Tbls. Salt
¾ cup coconut oil, butter or olive oil (melted)
1 cup honey
11-12 cups whole wheat flour or combination (I will occasionally throw in some kamut, barley, etc., but I mainly use hard white winter grain and/or hard red winter grain) - You can replace 1-2 cups with unbleached white flour for an even lighter texture, if desired.
2 1/2 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup flax seeds, optional
1/3 cup raw millet, optional
1/4 cup sunflower seeds, optional
2-4 Tbsp dough enhancer (4 Tbsp works best for me!) ---I didn't use this and mine turns out delicious :)

Combine yeast, 1 tsp of honey, and 1/2 cup of the total water required. Let sit for 5 minutes or so, until fully proofed. Combine the yeast mixture, remaining 4 cups of water, and all the rest of the ingredients in your mixer. Only add as much flour until it cleans the sides of the bowl. Knead the dough for 10 minutes until the gluten is fully developed. Remove to a greased bowl and cover with a towel. Let sit until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours. Punch down and divide into 4 loaves. Roll out with a rolling pin into a rectangle and roll up into a loaf (this makes the perfectly shaped loaves). Place in greased bread bans and rise again until doubled, about 30-45 minutes minutes (the best place is the oven! Just turn it on low 150-170 degrees till heated and then turn it off, prior to putting the loaves in). Turn the oven on to 350 degrees and bake for 30-45 minutes. Bread is done when it is fully browned on all sides! Remove from oven, rest in pans for 10 minutes before removing from pans.