How to Make Your Own Homemade Wheat Bread - No Knead

Sure, you can buy bread at the store. But, do you really know what's in it? Is the first ingredient stone ground whole wheat? Is there any unnecessary added sugar in the form of high-fructose corn syrup, or other refined sugars? Are there dyes and colorings in the bread that you are sure aren't harmful to your health? So, I make my own bread to save money but also to enjoy that home-baked bread taste that is simply unparalleled.

After making lots of loaves of bread, friends and family keep asking for tips on how to make a good batch. After plenty of trial and error, I have honed my craft of making simple homemade bread. Here is a recipe for two loaves at once. You can immediately eat one loaf and freeze the other to enjoy later.

Ingredients:

two packages of yeast

dry milk (1 cup, nonfat is best)

wheat flour (enough for about 7 cups or 30 oz.; I use King Arthur Flour because of the consistent results that I get with it)

butter (the real kind; I keep hearing reports that margarine and other people-made butter is not good for you) - (4 tbsp, melted)

sugar - (4 tbsp) (I use organic fair-trade sugar to be sure the farmers get their fair share)

lukewarm water (3 c) (basically, water from the tap that is neither warm nor cold...too much heat will kill the yeast)

sea salt - (3 tsp)

glass or ceramic dishes (I've used glass loaf pans and they make the bread taste fine, but ceramic dishes are *the best* for flavor and moisture retention in the bread; try not to use metal: it can heat unevenly, and tends to dry out the bread more - at least in my experience - plus the metal can leach into the bread, subtly affecting the taste

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Instructions:

Combine dry ingredients first (except flour) and mix well (this disperses the yeast evenly). Add butter and lukewarm water. Once everything is thoroughly mixed, add one cup of flour. Mix well. The dough will be very moist, a little thicker than water. Add the second cup of flour, and mix. Then add the third cup and mix. Then add the fourth cup. Continue mixing. The dough will start getting thicker. At this point, see if the ball of dough will accept more flour. In other words, if it is still sticky and doesn't want to form into a ball when you mix it, then it needs more flour. Add the fifth cup of flour. If the dough is still moist and you can't touch it with your hands without getting moist dough on your fingers, go ahead and add more flour until the dough will hold no more. Basically, you're looking for the consistency of play-doh, but the batter will be lumpy. The batch of bread that I made in the pictures actually used about 6 cups of whole wheat flour, not 7. That's because the dough was at the needed consistency and wouldn't hold more flour.

Spray or butter the ceramic dishes.

Divide the bread and put into the two different dishes.

Cover the dishes and set in a warm area to rise. (I like to put them in the same room as our wood stove, but not on the stove itself.) You don't have to knead the bread. Let rise about 2-3 hours. It won't rise a lot, but it should rise some. You want it to rise until the dough comes up and over the pan by about one inch or a little more.

Pre-heat oven to 350. (More if your oven cooks on the cool-side)

Bake about 25-30 minutes - but watch the bread. The crust should start to brown at about 20 minutes. Don't let it get dark or it will be dry and overcooked. From experience, I find that once it starts to brown, I wait a couple more minutes and then pull it out so that it retains the maximum amount of moisture but also has a firm crust.

Let cool, and enjoy the first loaf and freeze the second one to enjoy for later.

All about the tips and tricks of the trade! How to make bread is a really well done hub!

More on making bread: How to Make Bread: Bread-Making Tips and Tricks.

Mmmm. Have you ever made bread in a Dutch oven? I want to learn how. Check out this hub on Best Dutch Oven FAQs.

If you've seen my Lentil Soup in a Slow Cooker recipe, you'll know I love cooking with crock pots. Learn how to make bread in crock pots with Slow Cooker Recipes: How To Make Bread and Other Things.

If you're feeling confident, and need a bigger challenge, look at the hub on Bread Oven: Bakin' Artisan Bread.