Christine's Whole Wheat Bread Recipe

2 cups warm water
1 packages Yeast
2 cups fresh milled flour (I prefer Spelt)

1. In a large bowl, combine the yeast, water and flour and mix well. This will create your sponge mixture.
2. Cover and place in a warm place until the mixture has doubled in size.

Add to the sponge mixture the following:

2 cups fresh milled flour (I prefer Spelt)
1/3 cup oil2 teaspoons salt
1/4 to 1/2 cup of Gluten

3. Slowly add 2 cups more flour and the remaining ingredients, until the dough clear the sides, but the dough is sticky. Mix for 5 minutes. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead for 2 minutes. Add more flour as you need to make a firm, but smooth dough. Do not make the dough dry as this will have the (stretch marks and a drier bread) after baking the bread.

I make a mixture of rolled oats, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, flaked millet or any combination you prefer. Then lightly mix in the dough the seed mixture just so that the seed mixture is really pressed into the dough. Do not knead at this time as it will break down the gluten and you will not have a good rise before baking.

Put in lightly oiled pans or shape to put into the French loaf pans. Score top of the bread deeply three times. Cover and let rise 30 minutes or so, until just coming over top of pan.

5. Bake at 350F for about 40-60 minutes, or until nicely browned. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

To check if the bread is done, turn the bread upside down and tap on the bottom. It should have a nice hollow sound. If not, do not put the bread back in the pan, but place loaves back in the oven for another 5-10 minutes or until you are able to hear the hollow sound when tapping on the bottom of the bread.

Note: Cutting the gluten amount down will create a heavier bread.

Spelt is a softer wheat (non-hybrid) that is a sweeter tasting flour and does not have the bitter taste as the hard white wheat.