Whole wheat bread with stuff. Yummy stuff.

Ian and I made bread last week, and it was so much fun! At one point I looked into the oven, and said to myself, "I'm so excited about this!" One loaf was cinnamon raisin, and the other was our attempt to recreate an incredible bread we had recently. Our attempt wasn't the same, but it was still very good.

This is the first time I've made bread in a mixer, and my god, it was so much easier. Though not as physically satisfying as doing all of the mixing and kneading by hand.

Ingredients:

3 c. water
1/3 c. oil (we used walnut oil- lots of omega 3 & 6 and SO DELICIOUS)
1/3 c. honey
2 TB yeast
1 TB salt
1 TB vital wheat gluten
6-8 c. white whole wheat flour (we use King Arthur brand-- it's the lighter whole wheat flour, made from white wheat berries instead of red wheat berries)

Cinnamon raisin bread stuff:

2 TB butter
1 c. brown sugar
3 TB cinnamon
1 c. raisins soaked in warm water until plump, then drained

Cranberry pepper bread stuff:

1 c. dried cranberries
1 TB caraway seeds
1 TB fresh ground black pepper
1/2 c. chopped walnuts
1 tsp. ground sage


In your stand mixer, using a paddle attachment, mix the water, oil, honey, yeast and salt on low speed until thoroughly mixed.

Slowly start adding the flour and wheat gluten. Keep adding flour until the dough lifts from the bottom of the bowl and clears the sides. Stop adding flour. No, just stop. It should be sticky, don't worry.

Now knead in the mixer on the lowest speed for 8 minutes or so.

Oil your hands and put the dough on a clean counter with a little flour sprinkled on. Shape it into a ball, tucking the ends under well. Oil a large bowl, put the dough ball in smooth side down, then roll it over so the entire ball is covered in oil. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and set in a warm place to rise for about an hour.

In two separate bowls, mix the cinnamon raisin stuff and the cranberry pepper bread stuff, then set aside (like duh, what else will you do with it? balance it on your head?).

At some point, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

After it has risen, put the dough on the counter again, punch it down, and divide into two sections. Flatten each section into a square.

For the cinnamon bread, spread the square with butter, then spread out the rest of the stuff and smoosh it into the dough as best you can. Starting from the farthest edge, start to roll the square towards you, smooshing it down a little as you go. When you've rolled it all up, pinch the edges and ends together really well.

For the cranberry bread, spread the cranberry spice stuff all over the square and smoosh it in as well as you can, trying to get the cranberries into the dough as much as possible. Roll it up just like the other one, pinching it all closed really well.

Put both loaves seam sides down on a large baking sheet covered in parchment paper. Put the pan in the oven, toss about a cup of water onto the bottom of the oven and quickly shut the door. (The water makes steam which helps the bread to rise.) Bake for about 30 minutes, give or take. If the bread is nicely risen, browning, and sounds kind of hollow when you thump on it, it's probably done. I can usually tell when things are done because they smell done, but I don't know how to explain that to you.

When they're done, take them out of the oven and put both loaves on cooling racks. In theory, you should let the bread cool for almost an hour before cutting in. In reality, you should wait about 10 minutes, then burn your fingers cutting it so you can eat it hot with butter.

When we make these again, we will only do one flavor, so everything can be mixed in with the dough, because it was hard to get the yummy things pressed into the dough well enough. I might increase the yummy stuff ratio, too. More cranberries, spices, etc.

I would tell you how long this bread keeps, but with six toast eaters in the house, it lasted... oh... about 1 1/2 days.