My Old Reliable Whole Wheat Recipe

OK, I know this is a sourdough blog, but this entry is not about sourdough.  I was out of bread and didn't have time for the whole refresh-starter (6-8 hours), sponge growth (6-8 hours), bread machine cycle (3-4 hours) routine.  I decided to remind myself what my old friend, whole wheat made with commercial yeast was like.

The advantage to this method is that it only takes 4 hours from start to finish, and only takes about 5 minutes of my time.  The recipe is

Whole Wheat
Water	9  oz.
Whole wheat flour	2¼  cups
White flour	1¼ cup
Salt	1½  tsp
Butter	1½ Tbl
Honey	¼ cup
Yeast	2½ tsp

Yep, just throw all of that in the bread pan, push the start button, and in under four hours you get this:

Check out that height compared to my tallest sourdough bread, the sour cream rye.

After eating all of these heavy sourdough loaves for the past several months, this light and airy whole wheat seems almost like eating Wonder Bread.  I like the challenge and science of the sourdough recipes, but this old favorite is still going to be in my baking rotation.