Whole Wheat Bread Loaf

Add yeast to warm water, stir well and leave to rest for about 5 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, add about half of the flour. Make a well in the centre and pour in the yeast mixture. Start bringing the flour into the centre with a fork and stir until you have a batter-like consistency. Cover and let rest for about 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, add oil, honey and salt and stir to combine. Add remaining flour and work it in with a wooden spoon until you have a dough-like consistency. Turn dough out on a floured surface. At the moment, the dough will be quick sticky. You will have to use a little extra flour for your work surface and for kneading. Start kneading dough, turning and kneading as you go. Add little bits of flour every time you notice it is sticking to the work surface. Continue this process until dough is quite elastic and bounces back when touched. This will take up to 10 minutes. Once it has reached this consistency, form it into a ball and place it into a large bowl. Cover with a damp tea towel and put it in a warm place to rise. Leave the dough until it has about doubled in size. This will take anywhere between 30–60 minutes. It will depend on how warm your space is.

While dough is rising, get two bread loaf pans ready. Grease bread pans and line with parchment paper. Grease parchment paper as well. Set aside.

When dough has risen, punch it down and turn it out into two equal parts. I like to then divide each piece into 3 small little oval loaves and put 3 in a pan. You can just as easily keep each one in one large loaf. Cover and put them back in a warm place to rise. Again, you are looking for them to double in size. Remember that the size you see when it has finished rising will be the the actual size of your loaf when it has finished baking. The second rise will probably be 30–40 minutes.

Bake bread in preheated 350ºF oven for about 30–35 minutes. It should be golden in colour and quite a tough crust to touch. Turn bread out on a baking rack and remove parchment paper.

You can cut into this bread straight away. Delicious!

Note: You will need a little extra flour for kneading your dough.