Wheat bread Wednesday

After yesterday's fairly successful foray into making wheat bread I decided to give it another try today...I searched for wheat bread recipes on Google and found a winner. This. Bread. Is. Awesome.

I found it on cdkitchen. com - and thanks to a few rave reviews and helpful hints from reviewers, I decided to give it a go. I changed a few of the original ingredients and amounts(sorry, I'm not putting instant coffee into bread).

Outback Steakhouse Honey Wheat Bushman Bread (Bread Machine)

1/2 cup water
1 cup evaporated milk (or combine liquids to 1 1/2 cups water and add 1/4 cup powdered milk)
1/2 cup honey
1 tablespoon molasses
2 1/4 cup bread flour
2 1/4 cup wheat flour
4 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
1 tablespoon cocoa
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
cornmeal for dusting

Place all ingredients into the bread machine and process on dough setting. I opened it up after a few minutes and scraped down the sides. Let rise for 1 hour (I just let the dough cycle run its course). I then turned the bread machine back on to let it knead for a minute.

Remove from pan and divide into 8 portion. Form portions into tubular shaped loaves. Place on two cookie sheets (I have silicone mats that I use on my cookie sheets). Spray lightly with Pam, then sprinkle cornmeal on loaves. Cover and let rise 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Bake at 350' for 25-30 minutes. Be prepared for some pretty awesome aromas emanating from your oven. Makes 8 small loaves (about the equivalent of 3 dinner rolls each).

Verdict:

Nathan: 8.8 out of 10. A solid B+. "It looks like Artisan bread".
Alex: 8.5.
Danny: 11. Yes, 11.
Steve: 9.5
Me: I'm going with Steve on this one - 9.5. I didn't even have to make honey butter - you could taste the honey in it. The loaves were easy to cut - Danny was able to cut fairly thin slices with a steak knife. Dense texture without being heavy. This is a great, slightly sweet, wheat bread. Next week: I'm going to try and adapt my garlic-herb bread. Mmmm.

Wonder Bread

Okay, okay, it's not "Wonder Bread"...but it wasn't half bad either.

We tried out our wheat grinder last night for FHE - it works just fine - especially with kids turning the handle. I used a recipe from my bread machine cookbook:

Multigrain Bread

(it says it makes a large loaf - but I made 3 small loaves)

1 1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons softened butter
1 1/3 cup bread flour
1 1/3 cup wheat flour
1 cup 7-grain cereal
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 teaspoons yeast

After it had gone through the "dough" cycle on the bread machine I turned it back on to knead again for a few minutes - then divided it into 3 and put into greased (Pam) loaf pans. After it rose for 1 1/2 hours (longer than I planned - I was late getting back from physical therapy) I cooked it at 375' for 30 minutes. We tried it out while it was warm - with honey butter...mmmm.

Verdict (out of 10 with 10 being the best):

Steve: he gave it an 8...after raving about it. I think his lowish score might be a ploy to get me to try it again.
Nathan: 7. It was good.
Alex: 7.5.
Danny: 10. He also gave the honey butter a 10.
Me: I think 7 or 8 would be fair. I found the 7 grain cereal to be a little crunchier than I really wanted - it was a little too coarse. I would like to try this recipe again, but use some 10 grain cereal that I picked up - it has a finer texture. Besides, if 7 grain is good, 10 should be better, right?

Wheat for man....

Need some help here. Wynn is looking for a homemade wheat grinder blueprints or instructions ( with pictures if possible!!!). Low cost , of course.
Anybody have any plans or ideas?