Homemade Honey Wheat Bread

I don't know about you, but in our house we go through a TON of bread, between making toast for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch every day.. equals at least 16 slices per day. CRAZY! So to cut down on expenses, I decided to start baking bread at home (plus it tastes better too!). I found and tweaked this delicious honey wheat bread recipe, and everyone has fallen head over heels for it.

Honey Wheat Bread

3 cups hot water

1 1/2 Tbsp yeast

1/4 cup all-vegetable shortening

1/4 cup honey

1 Tbsp pink Himalayan salt

5-6 cups whole wheat flour

Butter or butter substitute

In a large bowl, add hot water and yeast.  Dissolve the yeast and wait until it froths (or bubbles) which takes about 5 minutes.  Then add shortening, honey, and salt, mixing in slightly with spatula (the dough will just get stuck in a whisk and a spatula makes it easy to scrape off the sides).  Add flour a cup at a time until you have a soft dough that isn't sticky. Put dough on a lightly floured surface and knead until it's a good, solid dough (add more flour if it still sticks to your hands, but not so much that it's tough.. we still want it to feel like dough). Put dough back into the bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and let it raise until it's doubled in size - about an hour.  If you put it on top of a warm oven (about 250), it raises beautifully.  Then place it back on the floured surface and knead it again. Divide the dough and place it into baking pans, pressing it into shape, and let it rise again for another hour.  Preheat oven to 350.  Bake bread for 30 minutes.  Pull oven rack out and butter the top of the bread, then back another 2 minutes.  Remove and let cool for 10 minutes.  Remove bread from pan, and let cool another 10 minutes before slicing.

Regular shortening and salt will work with this recipe, but the ingredients I have listed make it a healthier, tastier (and vegan) version. And make sure you use HOT water... if you use cold water, it won't rise correctly and it will look like this:

It will still taste good, but it will be more dense and flat.  Don't ask me how I know this.. hah.  Happy baking!!