I did end up getting a couple of beautiful braided loaves out of this recipe in the end. But it was touch-and-go for a while. I had to add so much extra flour that I started to wonder if I'd misread the scale when I was measuring it out. I'm not sure exactly how much extra flour I added, but I'd guess it was close to 300g!

This is a fairly mild and unassuming bread flavour-wise, but it looks very pretty with its plaits and its egg washed crust. And the lack of strong flavours means that it works beautifully in sandwiches as well as toasted with a bit of cinnamon and sugar. It might be interesting to try incorporating different flavours in the dough at some point, but I think it makes a great bread as is.

Whole Wheat Egg Bread

Slightly adapted from Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book

Ingredients

• 900-1200g hard/strong/high grade/bread whole wheat flour¹
• 1 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 c. warm water
• 2 tsp. active dry yeast
• 4 large eggs + water to make 2 3/4 c.
• 1/4 c. oil
• 3 Tbsp. honey
• 1 large egg + 2 tsp. water (for egg wash)
• Sesame seeds or poppy seeds (optional)

Directions

1. Add the yeast to the warm water and set aside for 10 minutes.
2. Combine flour and salt, mix well, and set aside.
3. Place the eggs in a large measuring cup and add water to bring the total volume up to 2 3/4 c.
4. Add the oil and the honey to the egg mixture and whisk well.
5. Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the yeast mixture and the egg mixture.
6. Stir to combine, working from the centre out.
7. The dough should be fairly soft, but if it it's very runny, then it'll need extra flour. Possibly quite a lot of extra flour. I normally wait until at least 10 minutes into kneading to make any amendments, but this one was so runny, that I made an exception. Use your judgement.
8. Knead very well. Especially if you end up adding more flour during kneading. If you have very efficient kneading technique, you might be able to get away with only 20 minutes. I went with 40 minutes of not terribly vigorous kneading.
9. Set the dough in a covered bowl to rise. It'll probably need a good couple of hours.
10. Knock the dough back and set to rise again. One to one-and-a-half hours should be sufficient this time.
11. Knock back again and divide into six equal portions.
12. Round each portion into a smooth ball, cover, and set to rest for 10 minutes.
13. Take three of the balls and roll each one into a rope about 14-16" (35-40cm) long for pan bread, a bit longer for free-form loaves.
14. Lay the three ropes side-by-side and plait, working from the middle out to each end.
15. If making pan bread, place the plaited loaf into a greased loaf pan, cover, and set to rise. Otherwise, place on a baking sheet to rise (covered so it doesn't dry out).
16. Repeat with remaining three balls of cough.
17. Allow to rise for ~45 mintues. (The proof might take more or less time depending on how warm the room is.)
18. Whisk the remaining egg with water and very gently brush the mixture onto the risen loaves. The brush used should be very soft as stiff bristles will damage the dough. Put on just enough egg to fully cover the surface without letting it pool in any crevices or valleys.
19. Sprinkle with sesame seeds or poppy seeds if desired.
20. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 35-45 minutes.

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¹ The recipe calls for 900g of flour, but with this amount I didn't have a dough so much as a thick batter. I could pour it. Even after adding quite a bit of extra flour (I'd guess ~300g), the dough was still quite sticky. The proportions seemed so off that I do wonder if my scales were malfunctioning or if I misread the numbers. If you're making this, proceed with caution and be prepared to add quite a bit of extra flour. ^Back