Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- In a large mixing bowl combine warm water, 1/3 cup honey, and yeast. Let sit until yeast starts to look foamy, about 5-10 minutes.
- Mix in 5 cups of the bread flour, one cup at a time. After mixed, cover with a towel and let sit for 30 minutes to form a sponge - or the dough has lots of tiny bubbles in it - looking like a sponge.
- with the mixer turned on with a dough hook (or you can mix it in manually), add the melted butter, salt and last 1/3 cup of honey. If you are using any of the optional ingredients, like the sesame seeds, sunflower seeds or oats, you can also add them here.
- Add in the whole wheat flour - one cup at a time until the dough starts to gather together. You don't want it too wet and sticky, but you also don't want to add too much flour to make for a dry crumbly loaf.
- Put dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes and put in a lightly greased bowl (I used coconut oil). Cover and let sit in a warm place until doubled - 1 to 2 hours.
- Punch dough down and put on lightly floured surface. Divide into 3 parts and shape into loaves.
- Put in greased loaf pans, cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350˚
- score top of loaves with a lame, razor blade or sharp knife and bake in the oven for 40 minutes.
- Once baked, put on a wire rack to cool and brush with melted butter if you like for a softer crust.
Notes
This recipe makes three loaves, so I freeze two of them and take them out as needed.
You can have a LOT of fun with this recipe as it is very forgiving. Add the optional ingredients