Creative Cooking Basic Whole Wheat Bread

I pulled two loaves out of the oven about 15 minutes after Mr. Kant and Mr. Big Food walked through the doorway. Five minutes later I took the butter out of the fridge and cut three slices of bread. It is  very good. It's fairly dense-- not as dense as a pumpernickel rye, but dense enough. 

So we were pleased with the final product, but I had doubts from the beginning.

I'm starting to really dislike my camera.

Rather than stirring in six cups of whole wheat flour, I used the mixer and bread hook. By the time the whole wheat flour was mixed in, I doubted that I'd be able to incorporate the white flour. And I was correct. 

I let the dough rise for an hour but it didn't double in size. I doubted that 30 more minutes would make much of a difference. Again, I was correct. 

I let the loaves rise for an hour and you can see where this is going. 

So the loaves were small but good. They were also quite attractive.

A word about the recipe. Mr. Big Food includes "prefaces" in some recipes that he puts in The Big Food Manual and Survivalist Flourishing Guide. The preface for the bread recipe is the caption for this photo. Now it makes sense!

From The Creative Cooking Course, edited by Charlotte Turgeon (1982)

Recipes for bread and egg wash below the fold.

“… a loaf made with two strands of Basic Whole Wheat Bread and three strands of Basic White Bread [see instructions in this section for shaping stranded braids]. … baked in a smaller-than-standard loaf pan, is whole wheat bread with its top snipped with a pair of large kitchen scissors [see techniques for preparing homemade bread in this section].”—The Creative Cooking Course (1982)

CREATIVE COOKING BASIC WHOLE WHEAT BREAD

Makes 2 loaves

¼ C milk, scalded

¼ C (packed firm) brown sugar

1 Tbsp salt

1/3 C butter

1/3 C molasses

1 ½ C lukewarm water

2 packages yeast

6 C stone-ground whole wheat flour

1 ½ C flour

1 recipe Egg Wash (see recipe in this section)

Add brown sugar, salt, butter, and molasses to hot scalded milk, and stir until dissolved. Let stand until lukewarm. Pour water into a warm, large mixing bowl, sprinkle yeast over water, stir to dissolve, and pour in lukewarm milk mixture, stirring constantly. Stir in 4 C whole wheat flour 1 c at a time, mixing until smooth. Stir in remaining 2 C whole wheat flour. Sprinkle with part of regular flour, and turn out dough on surface floured with remaining regular flour. Knead in additional regular flour for about 10 minutes, or until dough is smooth and elastic. Place dough in a well-buttered bowl, turning dough to coat all surfaces, cover bowl with a towel, and let dough rise in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in bulk. Turn out dough on a lightly floured surface, divide into half, shape each half into a loaf, place in 2 well-greased 9x5 inch loaf pans, cover, and let rise in a warm place for about 1 hour or until doubled in bulk. Preheat oven to 400^o. Bake loaves 10 minutes. Brush loaves with Egg Wash and bake 15 minutes longer.

~~

“Four classic glazes: Glazing is “the icing on the cake” for almost all foods. It entails simply the technique of adding flavor and a glossy coating to foods by brushing them with a liquid. It adds luster to the appearance of breads, pastry, lamb, veal, pork, poultry, vegetables and desserts.

            … Finally, there’s Egg Wash—nothing more elaborate than egg white and salt. We like to use it for crisp tops on savory breads.”—The Creative Cooking Course (1982)

CREATIVE COOKING EGG WASH

1 egg white

1 tsp salt

Combine egg white and salt, and beat mixture with a fork until foamy.