Honey-White Bread

It's Friday!
I might shock y'all, but I have a recipe for you!! 

Last Friday night, my husband and I baked bread together.
I love to use my Kitchen Aid and will jump at the chance to use it.
My awesome brothers gave it to us for a wedding gift.
I love it.

My brother, Brian, gave me this cookbook for Christmas, the year before I got married.

I love it, too.
Moral of the story:  my brothers give GREAT gifts.

Ok, so back to this baking thing.
We made Honey-Whole Wheat White Bread (from the above cookbook).
That's right...honey sounded good to Tyler, but he's not that big of a fan of whole wheat.
No problem, we can substitute.

So here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 3 cups whole wheat flour (we used all-purpose)
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/4 cup shortening (we used butter)
• 3 tsp salt
• 2 packages regular or quick active dry yeast (we used quick rise)
• 2 1/4 cups very warm water
• 3-4 cups all-purpose or bread flour (we used all-purpose)

Directions:

In a large bowl, beat whole wheat flour, honey, shortening, salt and yeast with electric mixer on low speed until well mixed.  (My helper is very handsome.)

Add warm water.  

Beat with electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute, scraping the bowl frequently.  Beat on medium speed for 1 minute, still scraping the bowl pretty frequently.  

Stir in enough all purpose flour, 1 cup at a time, to make dough easy to handle.

**I put my dough hook on my mixer.  I put enough flour in the bowl that all the dough was on the hook...nothing left in the bottom of the bowl.**

Isn't he so cute?  He did a great job, too!

Place dough on a lightly floured surface.  Knead for about 10 minutes or until dough is smooth and springy.  Grease a large bowl with shortening (or if you're rednecks like us, just spray some non-stick spray in it).  Place the dough in the bowl, turning it to grease all sides.  Cover bowl loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 40-60 minutes or until bread has doubled in size.

**We have a big tv.  It puts out a lot of heat.  My husband's idea of a warm place was behind the tv.  It worked! **

Grease bottoms and sides of two 8"x4" or 9"x5" loaf pans with shortening or spray with cooking spray.

Gently push fist into dough to deflate (or if you didn't read the "gently" part, punch it..it's a lot more fun anyway).  Divide dough in half.  Flatten each half with hands or rolling pin in a rectangle on a lightly floured surface.  

**Pretend that is a rectangle.**

Roll dough up tightly.  Press with thumbs to seal after each turn.  Pinch the edge of the dough into roll to seal.  Fold ends under loaf.

Place seam side down in pan.

Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place 35-50 minutes or until dough has doubled in size.

Move oven rack to low position so that the tops of the pans will be in the center of the oven.  Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Bake 40-50 minutes or until loaves are deep golden brown and sound hollow when tapped.  Remove from pans to wire rack (I didn't do this...I let cool in the pans).  Brush loaves with butter.  Cool.

And enjoy!

Happy cooking, friends!

And have a blessed weekend!!