Great Harvest Honey Whole Wheat Bread Copycat

By the time you get through the title of this recipe there’s not much to add in the ingredient list. Honey, whole wheat, some water, yeast, salt, and a few optional add-ins. It’s simple as far as the ingredients go but it took me a long time to really get the hang of this recipe. In fact, I almost threw it away because I was getting so frustrated with the inconsistent results. Sometimes my bread would be flat and other times it overflowed in the oven.

Part of the problem is that I think the instant yeast I use is a little different from “regular” instant yeast so I’ve provided a recipe with both options. I use saf-instant most of the time which is a way to speed up the process but I’m always nervous when I use it in recipes that don’t call for instant yeast. I’d let the dough rise twice like the recipe calls for which would result in it flowing out of the pan before it even got to the oven. Last time I altered the procedure and it rose beautifully!

Also, I have this fear of making dry bread (i.e. too much flour) so in recipes that say something should barely pull away from the side I’m really cautious to stop as soon as the dough might pull away. However, through trial and error with this recipe I think it’s good to make sure that there’s plenty of flour. The combination of 2 cups of water and honey makes for a very wet dough and it’s important to get enough flour that the bread isn’t soggy after it’s baked all the way through. And I think it’s a great idea to add at least 1/2 cup of oatmeal to the bread as that was something I did for the successful loaf.

Finally, I’m adjusting to baking with a gas oven and it seems as though everything bakes longer at a higher temperature than with an electric oven. Again, in my fear of over baking something to the point that it’s dried I’d pull out the bread as soon as the 30 minutes were up and slice it open only to find it doughy in the center. Now that’s a disappointment, and I want to spare you from it so I’ll share a secret my cousin, a professional bread baker shared with me. She works at an artisan bread bakery in Chicago called Hewn  and she told me that part of the flavor bread takes on is developed during baking. Now this probably applies more to artisan-type, crusty breads, but I think it makes sense with this bread too. Give it time in the oven, let it get really golden. By looking at some of the delicious treats baked at Hewn you’d maybe wonder if they accidentally over baked something but that dark crust is actually part of the deep flavor.

First time to Hewn and hopefully not the last!

Why a novel about artisan bread for this recipe? Well, using the idea to let the bread really bake, I finally had a success that caused me to hold on to this recipe. In fact, another loaf is in the oven as I type.

Now that I’ve over-complicated the recipe I’ll share it with hope that you try it and have success the first time!

Copycat Whole Wheat

Adapted from Eat Cake For Dinner

Yield: 1 loaf of bread

Ingredients

• 1 ½ Tbsp instant yeast
• 2 c. warm water
• 1/3 c. honey
• 3-4 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• 1/8- ½ c. any add-ins (oats, sunflower seeds, ground flax seeds, etc.)

Directions for Regular

• Combine yeast, water and honey in the bowl of a stand mixer; let sit for 5 minutes or until frothy and bubbly.
• Add 1 ½ cups of flour, any add-ins and salt and mix until combined. Add remaining flour, ½ cup at a time, until you get a soft dough. The dough should barely pull away from the sides of the bowl and it will be a little sticky.
• Using the dough hook, knead for 4 minutes on low, cover and let rise until doubled. Punch down dough (may be helpful to spray hands with cooking spray or I sometimes use the spatula to punch down dough) and put in a greased loaf pan (I use 8.5×4.5). Cover with a thin towel and let rise again until doubled.
• Optional: sprinkle the top with seeds or oats. Press lightly into dough.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes (longer if necessary!). Remove from oven. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove loaf and cool completely.

Directions for Saf-instant yeast

• I use the same amount of yeast. Combine it with water and honey in bowl of a stand mixer. Add 1 ½ cups of flour, any add-ins and salt and mix until combined. Add remaining flour, ½ cup at a time, until you get a soft dough. The dough should barely pull away from the sides of the bowl and it will be a little sticky.
• Using the dough hook, knead for 4 minutes on low. Transfer to greased bread pan (I use 8.5×4.5), cover with thin towel, and let rise until doubled.
• Optional: sprinkle the top with seeds or oats. Press lightly into dough.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes (longer if necessary!). Remove from oven. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove loaf and cool completely.