I haven't been great at keeping up with the bread baking lately. My poor starter is feeling a bit neglected and we've been largely bread-less over the summer.
I ended up rolling with this recipe today because it was the first one I found that a) I had all the ingredients for and b) didn't require an overnight sponge. And, honestly, it's delicious! I love it. I actually ate two slices immediately. Which I almost never do. And, while I did end up using the mix of white and whole wheat flour that the recipe called for this time, I think it would probably work really well as a 100% whole wheat loaf too!

Molasses Wheat Bread

Slightly adapted from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads

Ingredients

• 2 c. hot water¹
• 1/4 c. molasses
• 1/2 c. dry milk powder
• 1 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 450g hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour, divided
• 350-450g hard (strong/high grade/bread) or all-purpose flour, divided
• 250g sourdough discard @ 100% hydration (optional)
• 3 Tbsp. butter
• 4 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast (or ~1 Tbsp. instant yeast)

Directions

1. Combine the hot water, molasses, milk powder, salt, and ~150g of each of the flours.
2. Mix well and beat for a minute or two.
3. Add the sourdough discard (if using) and the butter and beat for another minute.
4. Add the remaining 300g of whole wheat flour and mix well.
5. Beat for 2-3 minutes.
6. Add the yeast and ~150g of the remaining white flour and mix by hand or with a dough hook.
7. Work in as much of the remaining flour as needed to form a good dough. Flour may be worked in either by hook or by hand.
8. Knead until dough is supple and elastic (~5 more minutes by hook or 15-20 minutes by hand, depending on the efficiency of your stroke).
9. Round the dough and place it in a covered bowl to rise (~1 hour depending on room temperature).
10. Knock the dough back and divide into two equal portions.
11. Round each one, cover, and rest for 5-10 minutes.
12. Meanwhile, grease two 20x10cm (8x4") loaf pans.
13. Working with one portion of dough at a time, press flat and fold into thirds (letter fold). Then, instead of rolling up jelly-roll-style as usual, roll and stretch the dough into a log about 1.5x the length of the loaf pan. Now twist the log once or twice around and place it in one of the prepared loaf pans.
14. Cover and set aside to rise for ~45 minutes at room temperature.
15. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
16. Bake the loaves at 190°C (375°F) until done (30-45 minutes depending on how well-risen they were going in).
17. If desired, remove from tin for last 5 minutes of baking to give the crust some extra crisp.
18. Turn off the oven and allow the bread to stand in the hot oven for ~5 minutes.
19. Turn out of pan and transfer to wire rack to cool.

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¹ I made my water very hot indeed and then just made sure to add everything else to it before adding the yeast. I was also adding cold sourdough discard out of the fridge which helped to bring the temperature down a bit. ^Back