WHOLE WHEAT MILK BREAD
Makes 2 loaves or 10 buns and 1 loaf.This soft sandwich bread is both pillowy and full of flavor. I love using spelt flour in this recipe, but since it won’t help your bread rise very well, I use ½ spelt flour and ½ regular whole wheat flour (which is made from hard red wheat, a much stronger variety that will power the height of your loaves and buns) for the whole wheat portion of the recipe. As with all of our recipes featuring whole wheat flour, we encourage purchasing the freshest possible, such as Grist & Toll in the Los Angeles area, Maine Grains in the Northeast and Anson Mills in the Southeast. – Clemence Gossett
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Ingredients
- 2/3 cup Heavy cream 160g
- 1 1/2 cup milk 360g
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup honey or sugar 100g
- 1 pack instant yeast* 7g (*If all you can find is active dry, fear not. It will take a little extra time for your bread dough to rise and proof, but it will still work!)
- 2 cup bread flour 250g
- 2 3/4 cup whole wheat flour 360g
- 2 tsp Kosher salt or flaked sea salt
- 1 egg for egg wash
Instructions
- Place the cream, milk, eggs and honey in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the yeast, followed by the flour and salt. Knead for about 5 minutes. The fat in this recipe makes it more challenging for the gluten strands to link together and gain strength, so knead away! Alternatively, you can knead this by hand! Start with a wooden spoon and finish by kneading by hand on a barely floured surface.
- Cover and let the dough rise at room temperature for one hour OR place immediately in the refrigerator overnight. Once the dough has increased by about 40%, it’s time to divide and shape.
- This dough makes enough for either two loaves or 20 buns, but I usually shape 10 buns and 1 loaf. Divide the entire dough in half and shape to your liking.
- Buns: Divide the first half of your dough into 10 pieces. Using a floured hand, gather each piece, one at a time, and roll on the counter to form a ball with surface tension at the bottom (see our video and go to 11:30 for this technique). Place the buns on a parchment-paper lined cookie sheet. Let proof for about one hour at room temperature or in the refrigerator overnight.
- Loaves: Take one of the halves of dough and coach into a rectangle about 9” x 5”. Roll up into a tight cylinder and place seam-side down into a standard loaf pan lined with parchment paper. Let proof for about one hour at room temperature or in the refrigerator overnight.
- To bake: Preheat oven to 350F. Beat the egg with a pinch of salt and brush onto the loaves/buns. Bake buns for about 25 minutes and loaf for about 35 minutes.
