Simply Sugarless: Whole Wheat Bread

Welcome to Simply Sugarless, our monthly sugar-free recipe column written by Starr Struck's own Sara Meeks. Once per month, Sara picks a "regular" recipe and adapts it into a sugar-free version of that same recipe using only natural sweeteners (fruit, sweet veggies, etc.). A perfect option for those trying to eat less added sugar on a daily basis.

​Take it away, Sara...

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This blog series has turned more into a “What I have Been Dying to Try Without Sugar But Couldn’t Muster the Motivation to Do On My Own” column. That doesn’t have as nice of a ring to it, so we’ll stick with “Simply Sugarless," but just know that I appreciate the motivation and have been crazy excited to share all these new attempts at cooking/baking with all of you.

The convenience of picking up peanut butter or spaghetti sauce or muffins at the grocery store is *obviously* an improvement over having to cook everything from scratch, but it’s nice to dig in [once in a while] and realize what’s really involved in the process of making some of our favorite, pre-made foods. And, seriously, how good does all the really fresh stuff taste?!? Amazing, right?

Anyway, that’s what’s going on with this month’s recipe: I’ve been wanting to make my own whole wheat bread for ages. A lot of commercial breads have pretty yucky stuff in them, but we go through SO MUCH BREAD in our house that baking it myself isn’t feasible. Plus, it’s a lot of work, you know? All that kneading…and the rising…whew!

But I’m happy to report that the final product here made all the hard work worth it. I’m still not sure we found a realistic replacement for my husband’s daily peanut butter + jelly sandwiches, but as a delicious break from the monotony of commercial bread? I’ll take it!

WHOLE WHEAT BREAD
Hands-on time: 20 minutes | Rising time: 2-4 hours | Cook time: 40-50 minutes | Total time: ~5 hours
Yield: 1 loaf

Ingredients: 

• 1 to 1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup honey
• 3 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour (or regular whole wheat flour is fine)
• 1 packet active dry yeast dissolved in 2 tablespoons of the water in the recipe
• 1/4 cup nonfat dried milk
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt

Directions:

• Combine all of the ingredients and mix until the dough starts to leave the sides of the bowl. I used a wooden spoon, not a mixer, for this.
• Knead the dough for 6 to 8 minutes, or until it begins to become smooth and supple. It should be soft, yet still firm enough to knead. Adjust its consistency with additional water or flour, if necessary.
• Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl and cover the container.
• Allow the dough to rise until very puffy – about 1 to 2 hours, depending on the warmth of your kitchen. My bread took the full two hours to rise.
• Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled work surface, and shape it into an 8” log. Place the log in a lightly greased 8 1/2” x 4 1/2” loaf pan, and cover the pan loosely with lightly greased plastic wrap.
• Allow the bread to rise for about 1 to 2 hours, or till the center has crowned about 1” above the rim of the pan. Again, mine took close to the full two hours. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F.
• Bake the bread for 20-25 minutes until the top is nearly as brown as you would like it. 
• Tent with aluminum foil for the remaining 15-20 minutes of baking. Remove from oven.
• Turn the loaf out of the pan, and rub a stick of butter over the crust, if desired. 
• Slice when completely cool. Store the bread in a plastic bag at room temperature.
  
  

{Created by modifying this recipe.} 

So pretty, isn't it? There's really nothing like homemade bread! We have a bread maker and I used to make whole wheat bread in it all the time, but as happens in life, it fell to the wayside when things got busy. Sara's creation and all of these delicious-looking pics make me want to dig it back out...

View more Simply Sugarless recipes and/or learn more about the column + Sara here.  You can also follow Sara + her fam on her fun photo-a-day blog, Small City | Big Days. ​

Thanks for sharing, Sara!