Desperately needed-EASY tried and true sandwich bread (soft) type wheat bread recipe

[HappyGrace]

In the interest of saving money I'd like to make our own wheat bread. We've been making sourdough bread for years for eating, but it's no good for sandwiches. I'd love any easy, basic sandwich quality wheat bread recipe. We don't grind our own wheat-we use King Arthur white whole wheat. We knead by hand, but we do have a Cuisinart food processor with a dough attachment we could use. Also have a bread machine that I don't even know how to use but we could learn if your recipe requires that for kneading! (I don't like to bake the bread in it because of the shape of the bread.)

I'd love something that only requires one kneading/rising. THANK you! (And my pocketbook thanks you!)

[sleepy]

100% whole wheat recipe (http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/recipe.jsp?recipe_id=R428)

the molasses makes it really soft and delicious :drool:
(I leave out the dried milk)

I use my bread machine to knead it, then bake it in the oven.

[Claire]

How many loaves do you want to make at a time? Seems to me if you really want to save money, you need to bake multiple loaves simultaneously. The Cuisinart is great for making just one loaf at a time, and your bread machine can also probably knead just one loaf at a time. However, have you thought about the energy costs for baking? That might make a difference in the recipe you want to use, as not all recipes double or quadruple well.

[HappyGrace]

sleepy-Does the molasses give it a sweet flavor? We don't like any sweet flavor to our sandwich bread here. Or is the molasses more to keep it soft?

claire-We're currently paying $3.69 or more for organic store bought bread, so anything would be a savings! Praise God, we're not so tight with the budget that we have to worry too much, like for the energy cost difference between one loaf or multiple. We'd just make one loaf per day, enough for a family of four. Dd8 makes our sourdough bread, so if we start making sandwich bread every day, we could switch off days making it, which would be nice. I know what you mean-some recipes do NOT translate well to multiple loaves.

[Claire]

Okay. Here's my recipe for making a loaf in the Cuisinart. Use the bread-making blade (plastic) if you have it.

1 pkg active dry yeast (about 2 tsp if measured) -- Dump into bowl.
1/4 cup very warm water -- add to bowl and stir for a minute to dissolve.
1 Tbp sugar -- add to yeast and let stand 5 minutes or less.
1 to 2 tsp salt -- add to bowl.
2-1/2 cups flour -- add to bowl (I use all-purpose or bread flour. White whole wheat is fine too.)
1 Tbsp melted butter or oil -- add to bowl

Turn on processor. Gradually add 1/2 to 1 cup additional warm water through top until dough forms a ball that spins around the workbowl. Spin 25 times. Turn off processor, let dough rest 1 to 2 minutes.

Check dough. If stiff, turn on processor and drizzle in more water to make a soft dough. Spin 15 to 25 times more. If you've added too much water, sprinkle 1 Tbsp or so of flour over the dough, scrape down the sides, and spin 15 to 25 times more. (I have found that total spins should not exceed 60 or the dough will be tough.)

Leave cover on processor and let rise in workbowl. After doubled in size, punch down and shape into loaf. Cover loaf and let rise until almost doubled, about 45 minutes.

Bake at 375 degrees about 25 to 30 minutes.

If you make this loaf daily, after 4 or 5 days you will know exactly how much water to add and will not need to stop halfway through and check the dough. A lot of this is visual -- seeing what the dough looks like as it spins and stopping the water at just the right point. I find it easiest to err on the side of a soft dough that is slightly sticky. Stiff doughs seem to turn out a tough bread for me. Sticky loaves don't always look great when I put them in the oven, but always seem to taste fine.

You can also make this recipe conventionally. Follow the steps to adding the flour, but add just 1 cup and beat well first. Let rest 15 minutes before adding rest of flour, then turn out onto board and knead by hand 10 minutes. Let rise in bowl until doubled, punch down, form loaf, let rise, and bake.

[Claire]

Here's a different conventional recipe I like for simple sandwich bread, but it makes 2 loaves.

Combine a pkg dry yeast and 1/4 cup warm-to-the-touch water and let sit.

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, combine:
1 cup warm milk
2 Tbsp very soft or melted butter or shortening
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp salt (or less for lower sodium content)

Combine the above two mixtures and add:
3 cups flour. Beat or stir to mix well, then add an additional
3-1/2 cups of flour, kneading dough until smooth and elastic.

Allow to rise in a greased, covered bowl until doubled in size, usually 1 hour. Punch down, shape into loaves, let rise until almost doubled. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 350 and bake an additional 30 minutes.

[Claire]

Lastly, I should mention some breadmaking tips for first-timers.

***Always use a liquid that feels warm to your skin. Hot liquid will kill the yeast. Cold liquid will make the rising of the dough too slow. Yeast likes a cozy temperature to proliferate.

*Add enough flour for the dough to hold its shape, but not much more. Greasing your hands will help you handle the dough without adding additional flour. Dough that is really stiff often makes bread that is tough.

[kokotg]

this is how I've been making mine lately:

1 tbs yeast
1 1/4 cup very warm water
2 tbs honey
3 tbs oil
3/4 tbs salt
about 3 1/2 cups flour

I use instant yeast, so I mix it in whenever. If you're using packets, you probably want to do the thing where you put the honey and 1/4 cup of water in with the yeast first then add that to the other ingredients. I mix everything except the flour, then mix in the flour slowly until it comes together enough to start kneading. Knead 6 or 7 minutes, adding in flour as needed. rise until double, punch it down and shape into loaves, rise again, then put it in a cold oven and set to 450. Turn down to 350 after 10 minutes or so and bake until it's brown and sounds hollow when tapped. Sometimes I substitute a cup of oatmeal for some of the flour--that should make it softer. It's based on a recipe from "Our Daily Bread" by Stella Standard, but I tweaked it a good bit. It makes a nice, easily sliceable, not too dense loaf of sandwich bread.

[sleepy]

I think the molasses mainly adds to the softness... it doesn't seem sweet to me. YMMV, of course.

[Robin Hood]

In my olden days, the days before bread machines, I used to make lots of bread. I found it to be too crumbly for sandwhiches and I sought out solutions. The following is what I found to work the best. You need gluten. I found it at the health food store. I don't remember the exact exchange, but it wasn't much. If you do decide to give it a try, try substituting 2T of brown flour for 2T of gluten. If you're not happy, try a T at a time until you are.

Gluten might just be a type if flour and if it is, find flour with the highest concentration of it. Any Better for Bread type of flour is simply high gluten flour, but it's always white. We use high gluten flour at our Pizza shop, but I think it comes even higher than we can find it. We usually buy 300 pounds of flour a week, but it's all white flour. Bla. Our supplier doesn't supply any WW flour that I know of, but my dh wouldn't buy it anyway if it did. Bla, again.

[Janet in WA]

For the kind of texture you want, you really do need to add gluten to whole grain breads. Look for recipes and/or breadmaking tips that will help you decide how much gluten to add.

[HappyGrace]

And I will try to read up on gluten. I do have some that we threw in from time to time in the sourdough bread, but I don't really know what it does. I will try to find out more about it so I can use it properly to get the "soft" effect. Thanks so much!

[chickenpatty]

Yes, I've noticed that my whole wheat bread is softer and "stretchier" since I've been adding molasses. I have also begun kneading it longer, like for 10 minutes instead of 3 minutes. I add about 1/4 cup of molasses for my recipe that makes 3 loaves and it doesn't alter the flavor much, but it does give it a beautiful coffee brown color.