Whole Wheat Cheddar Bread

Whole Wheat, with salt, ready for yeast and water:

Kneaded, rolled, and cheesed:

And ready to rise:

Alas, it did not rise well. Too much cheese? It was delicious anyway.

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

I tried a new sandwich bread recipe, involving a loaf that I was not to knead, really, but stir vigorously, and knead a little bit. Here's that dough:

Risen a bit:

And then it went into the fridge for a day, and got giant!

The resulting light, fluffy, 100% wheat loaf was delicious...even though I didn't grease my pans well:

Cracked Wheat Bread

Back to some bread, especially since I haven't posted in a while!

Bulgar. The base for this cracked wheat bread published by the NY Times:
Do not be fooled - this recipe is...more complicated that the much more famous "minimalist" loaf!

It involved a sponge, a dough, lots of rising...

More rising...

And when all was said and done, I probably need to make it again to get my loaves a bit lighter. But the flavor of this one is amazing, and worth another baking!

Whole Wheat Cheddar Biscuits

I love cheese:

So I added some to a biscuit recipe, instead of using all butter for the fat:

Ready to bake:

And melted, ready to serve:

What? No Kneading?

It doesn't look like much, and honestly, it is no work at all. I've taken this recipe for "minimalist" bread with no kneading, and added some whole wheat flour (experiment to see what proportion you like):

The worst of it is flipping your dough into a couche, and then into a pan!

And yes, beautiful bread. Gently lifted out of my cast iron pot, here with tongs.

Light Wheat Bread

This slightly rough looking dough, set to rise, is made partially with whole wheat flour, and some oatmeal, for a hearty, yet light, texture:

It was still a litle lumpy looking when I rolled it into a loaf:

But rose nicely:

And sliced into nice sandwiches:

Microbrewery Bread

This bread is made with beer. Oh, and whole grains, too:

I started with the whole grains - oats and part whole wheat flour:

Added beer:

kneaded until smooth - this dough was great to work with:

And let rise, twice. I was hurrying my bread to the oven and missed a good picture of the dough overflowing the pan this time:

Light Wheat Brioche

This is a healthy improvement on a rich a delicious brioche:

I used a mix of whole wheat and regular flour in both the sponge:

And the resulting dough, pictures just before the butter was worked in:

It takes a bit of kneading to get the butter absorbed and distributed:

Once the butter was in and the dough fully kneaded, I set it to rise:

A few hours later, I took this dough and set it for a second rise in the loaf pans:

Yum.

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Bread

I sometimes ask myself what could be better than a good oatmeal bread. I don't have an answer, really. It's continually been my favorite to bake and eat. This time, when I was steeping my oats, I substituted a bit of the white flour for whole wheat:

I ad my doubts - the dough was looking pretty ragged pre-kneading:

But it smoothed out...

And rose beautifully:

The second rise in the loaf pan was also encouraging:

And the finished loaf was light, hearty and delicious!

Whole Wheat Pecan Bread

After my last experiment, I set out to try another whole wheat recipe. This Whole Wheat Walnut Bread (I substituted pecans) was delicious, if a bit on the dense side of hearty:

The dough, thankfully, was smoother than the last whole wheat bread. I took it as an encouraging sign:

Soon, the warmth of the dough had clouded over my plastic wrap:

I used a slightly smaller bread pan and hoped that this would rise well:

And once the dough crested the top, into the oven it went!
This loaf is particularly nice for peanut butter and jelly.

Bread Fail: Whole Wheat Bread

I've made breads I didn't love, and cookies that weren't quite right. Nothing compares, though, to this seemingly innocent piece of dough that looks a little shy of ready to go into the oven:

Part of it was a time crunch - I just didn't give the poor dough long enough to rise, and gambled that it would all turn out ok. I mean, looking above, it rose quite a bit from this:

And it had all started out so well, with a starter, soaker and plenty of hard to work with whole wheat flour:

Here's the pathetic finished product. It was...dense: