I love fresh bread. Moist, dense, tasty whole grain bread. The problem comes in once we move out to the ranch we will be 1/2 hour from the closest supermarket and an hour from Whole Foods who’s bread I adore. So I decided a bread machine was just the thing. I spent weeks looking thru machines on Craigs list and finally found a Cuisinart convection CBK-200WS.
I found that I had a couple of challenges when I started looking for the kinds of recipes I wanted.
I am hypoglycemic, so I do not eat white bread and try very hard to stay away from bread that has any white flour in it…it just doesn’t make me feel good. When I got my machine I set out to find some recipes that were 100% whole grain. I found it was not as easy as I had thought it would be. Most recipes have some amount of bread flour in them and with the exception of some 100% whole wheat recipes, I just couldn’t find what I wanted.
The other challenge is that we are at about 5500′ above sea level and this could require some adjustments to standard recipes. If you are above sea level, you can google info on making adjustments for the altitude such as adding additional water, decreasing sugars and such, and I did this but what ended up working for me was making a loaf following the recipe and then making adjustments the second time I made the recipe.
The first recipe I tried was a 100% whole wheat recipe. It was dry and hard, although my husband thought it was tasty (thank goodness he will eat anything I make !). The second time I made it, I increased the water while the dough was on the kneed cycle so it had a somewhat smooth shiny texture and I also increased the yeast by 1/8t. This all ended up working and I ended up with a lovely loaf.
And here is my 2nd loaf…what a difference.
Some other things that I found worked for me were:
-
Use an instant read thermometer to ensure that your liquids are at the temperature your recipe recommends.
- Ingredients that need to be at room temp should either be set out ahead of time, or if you need your eggs or butter at room temp, set them in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes…a quick hit on the microwave can also warm up ingredients.
- Measure all your ingredients exactly as the recipe says. For your dry ingredients, use cups that you can level off with a knife. For liquids, use a clear measuring cup, fill to the measurement line and then check it at eye level for accuracy.
- Watch your bread during the kneed cycle and add water, at the right temp, as necessary.
- Increase your yeast by a small amount if your bread is too heavy…for me this was a trial and error adjustment. I have also read you can use vial wheat gluten but so far I haven’t tried this.
- Before the last rise cycle, remove and reshape your bread so your end result will be a nicely shaped loaf. (My machine has an audible signal before the last rise..this also allows me to remove the paddle).
- A little bit of cornmeal on the bottom of the loaf makes the crust nice and, well, crusty.
Alpine Wheat Bread Recipe
Water = 1C + 3T
Oil (Vegetable) = 1/4C
Molasses = 1/4C
Lemon Juice = 2t
Egg Whites = 2
Cinnamon = 2t
Salt = 2t
Whole Wheat Flour = 4C
Active Dry Yeast = 41/2t + 1/8t
Raisins* = 2/3C
Walnuts* = 2/3C
I set my bread machine for a 2lb loaf with a light crust. For * I add these ingredients at the mix in cycle.
Enjoy!
