This bread is wonderful. It's great for sandwiches, it slices well and holds together and has a sweet and roasty flavor. It rides that perfect line between not too healthy and not too unhealthy. It's mostly made with whole wheat flour and is only sweetened with honey.
The dough for this bread is really easy to work with and makes a perfect sized loaf. I love to have a loaf around to make breakfast sandwiches with bacon and fried eggs.
Ingredients:
1 cup warm water
1 packet of active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
1/3 cup honey
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 egg
2 Tbsp room temperature butter
2 Tbsp molasses
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 3/4 cup white flour
1 tsp salt
Melted butter
Directions:
Combine the water, yeast, and honey in a large mixing bowl and let sit for 10 minutes while the yeast activates.
Add in the whole wheat flour, egg, butter, molasses, and cocoa powder and mix until well combined. Add in the salt and continue to kneads while adding in the white flour a little at a time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Watch the dough as you add in the flour, you may need more or less depending on how your dough reacts. After the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl continue to knead for 10 more minutes. Shape into a ball, cover, and allow to prove for 1 hour to an hour and a half until double in size.
Once the dough has risen punch down and turn out onto the counter. Push the dough out into a rough rectangle shape, not much wider than the shape of your bread pan. Roll the dough up into a log and tuck the ends under until it forms a nice loaf shape. Drop into a well greased pan bread pan. Cover and let raise for another hour.
Preheat your oven to 350°. When your loaf has risen place in the oven and bake for 45 minutes.
When you take the loaf out of the oven brush with melted butter and allow to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then flip out of the pan onto a cooling rack and allow it to cool completely.
