Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

I want to clarify something... I am NOT trying to turn into one of those "Martha Stewart" types who literally make just about everything from scratch, have a beautifully decorated home, and a perfectly landscaped garden.  For starters, I have children so my home is current on Fisher Price decor if that's a cute trend.  And I have a dog so it's all I can do just to keep him from eating the raspberries and tomatoes.  Because he has.  And it drives me crazy.

But that food part?  Well, I'm slowly getting to that "make everything myself" point not because of any trendy trend, but because I'm CHEAP.  I mean, seriously, have you seen the cost of bread lately?!

I want my family to eat healthy, just like any other Family Cook.  But it nauseates me to spend so much money on something that I have come to realize doesn't cost THAT much to make!  Like bread.

And thanks to recipes like this one, I am NEVER buying bread again. 

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
Recipe from Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day
Prep time: 5-10 minutes   Rising time: 3 1/2-4 hours   Cook time: 50 minutes

5 cups whole wheat flour
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tbsp granulated yeast
1 tbsp kosher salt
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
2 1/2 cups lukewarm water
1/2 cup honey
5 large eggs
2/3 cup canola oil

1.  In a 5 quart, NON airtight, lidded container, whisk together the flours, yeast, salt, and gluten.

Basic dry ingredients in that shoebox container again.

2.  Combine the liquid ingredients in a medium bowl and mix into the dry ingredients, without kneading.

Pour in the wet...

...and stir to combine

3.  Cover (again with the NOT airtight seal), and allow to rest at room temperature for about 2 hours.  You could bake some up right away but it's better if you put it in the fridge and forget about it for 24 hours.

LABEL LABEL LABEL

HURRAY YOU HAVE SANDWICH BREAD DOUGH!!!  Now what?

BAKING DAY
1.  Lightly grease an 8 1/2x4 1/2-inch loaf pan.  Take the dough out of the fridge and dust the surface with flour.  Cut off a 2lb piece (this will be half the dough in the container), dust with more flour and shape into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating as your go.

One loaf is about half the container.

2.  Elongate the ball into an oval and place it in to the loaf pan.  Cover it loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 1 1/2 to 2 hours (40 minutes if you can't wait and using fresh, unrefrigerated dough).

LOOSELY cover.  Just lay the plastic on top and walk away.

Rise, my bread!  RISE!

3.  Thirty minutes before baking time, preheat the oven to 350.  Place the loaf on a rack near the center of the oven and bake for 45-50 minutes, or until golden brown.

Yes, it smells as good as it looks.

4.  Remove the bread from the pan and allow it to cool completely on a rack before slicing and eating.

Good luck waiting until this is cool to eat it.

This. Bread. Is. INSANELY GOOD!!  Don't believe me?  Ask my toddler.  Or better yet since his verbal skills aren't the greatest, show him a loaf and watch his reaction.

I do have a few random things I want to point out about this bread before you go racing off to your kitchen to make your own:

• Storage.  The recipe says to just keep this on a plate, uncovered, cut side down.  It's a wet dough so technically it doesn't need to be covered to keep for a while.  I tried this and about the last inch or so got pretty stale.  And while I have ways of using up stale bread, I'd rather eat up as much of this in my sandwiches as I can.  For the moment, I'm keeping mine wrapped in foil in the pantry until I can find a better solution.
• You WILL need to wash this bin when you're done with it because of the eggs.
• Rising.  I've tried various wheat bread recipes over the years, hoping to find one we could use for sandwiches so I wouldn't have to buy the overpriced stuff anymore.  But while the loaves were good, they'd always come out pretty dense.  This bread is gloriously fluffy, thanks to the eggs, yeast (of course), and vital wheat gluten.  I'm new to that stuff and I absolutely LOVE the results of it!