Farmhouse Wheat Bread
Created with staples you’d find in any old country farmhouse, this Farmhouse Wheat Bread is just the right blend of light, hearty, and delicious. And there’s a surprise ingredient in this recipe that makes it stand out~and I’ll explain below! Baking good homemade bread is a skill that is lost to so many these days. I think this is just so sad! When baking homemade bread, you walk a fine line between science and art. But armed with the right tools and a bit of practice under your belt, and anyone can turn out deliciously baked loaves from their home oven. A stand mixer is super handy, not gonna lie. One thing that scared me away from bread baking was having to stand at the counter and hand knead for what felt like hours… I have written out this recipe using the tools and shortcuts I use to get perfect loaves every time. Are you a beginner baker? I would suggest starting with my recipe for The Best Potato Bread, it’s my most popular bread recipe.
Farmhouse Wheat bread
This recipe includes both whole wheat and white flour, toasted wheat germ, oats, yeast, butter, cottage cheese (yes, cottage cheese!), butter, milk, honey, molasses, eggs and salt. The cottage cheese adds flavor and additional moisture.
Hand whisk all the dry ingredients together, except the white flour, in the bowl of a stand mixer. Then put all the rest of the liquid ingredients, except for the eggs, into a 4 cup glass measuring cup and heat it up to between 120 to 130 degrees in the microwave. (An instant read food thermometer is a must have for me.) This is the perfect temp to really jumpstart the yeast. I almost never ‘proof’ my yeast, most times it’s just an unnecessary step. Whisk the liquids together. Attach the stand mixer bowl to the base, attach the dough hook, turn the mixer on low and slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry.
Next, stir the eggs one at a time, and set a timer (I just use my oven timer) for 10 minutes. This is the total length of time you want to knead the dough in your mixer to develop the right amount of gluten. Now slowly add the white flour, one cup at a time, with the machine running. It’s easy to ‘over flour’ your bread dough and bake up really dry bread. Only add as much as you knead~ oops I meat ‘need’, bahaha :0) I wouldn’t use more than 3 1/2 to 4 cups total white flour in this recipe. Anyway, as you add a little bit of flour at a time you’ll see the dough come together, then get sticky again. Ideally you want to keep adding flour until the dough stays in a cohesive ball and doesn’t revert back to sticking on the sides.
At this time I like to set my oven to it’s lowest temperature, or the ‘warm’ setting, to warm my oven for a nice place to put the dough to rise. Just remember to turn it off before you actually put the dough in it :0)
If you reach the end of the 10 minutes and the dough is still sticky, add in another two tablespoons of white flour and stop the machine as soon as the dough comes together again. Empty onto a *floured* countertop. Knead it by hand for a few seconds to make a nice rounded ball, adding a bit of flour as needed to keep it from sticking. Place in a large oiled (or sprayed) bowl. Roll the dough around and flip it over to coat it with oil too. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in a warm place to rise for about an hour.
Divide the dough in half as evenly as possible and shape into a nice round, as shown above. Set each piece on a greased cookie sheet. You can make it more round than mine, but I like this flattened shape because the bread cooks faster and more evenly. If you make them more rounded like a ball, keep an eye on the crust, it may brown deeply before the bread is fully baked. If this happens, cover it with a sheet of aluminum foil to finish baking. Cover with a towel (I prefer to use plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray so it won’t stick) and set in a warm place (oven) to rise again for about 40 minutes. Place the bread in the oven on the upper middle and lower middle racks. Set the oven to heat to 350 degrees. Bake for about 30-40 minutes, or until the internal temp reaches 180 degrees. Set to cool on a wire rack and don’t cut into it for at least 30 minutes! The bread will still be cooking internally and will be mushy if cut into when hot. This is true for most breads.
So now that you’ve got some fabulous bread to eat (and share!) what shall you eat it with??? Try whipping up some cinnamon honey butter to slather on top of a nice thick slice. Or make some french bread for breakfast tomorrow. Mmmmm mmmm. Super delicious, and gratifying! You just baked old fashioned Farmhouse Wheat Bread from scratch. You deserve a pat on the back :0)
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Farmhouse Wheat Bread
- Total Time: 2 hours 40 minutes
- Yield: 2 1x
Description
This bread is a rustic blend of flours, grains, dairy, potatoes, honey and molasses. This recipe is written for use with a stand mixer and microwave, but a stove and hand kneading will work just fine too.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup quick-cooking oats
- 1/3 cup toasted wheat germ
- 2 packages active dry yeast
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup cottage cheese
- 1/2 cup plain mashed potatoes
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 tablespoons molasses
- 2 eggs
- 3 to 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the whole wheat flour, oats, wheat germ, yeast and salt. Whisk until combined.
- In a medium sized microwaveable bowl, combine the water, cottage cheese, mashed potatoes, butter, milk, honey, and molasses. Microwave to 120 – 130 degrees (about 2 minutes). Whisk the hot liquid together.
- With the dough hook attached and the mixer on low speed, gently pour the liquid mix into the dry ingredients. Add the eggs, one at a time. Up the speed to medium-low and set a timer for 10 minutes.
- Slowly add three cups of all-purpose white flour one cup at a time. Stop the mixer and push the dough from the dough hook down into the bowl. Use a spatula to scrape and loosen the dough from the sides of the bowl. Begin kneading again with the dough hook on medium speed. Add white flour one tablespoon at a time until the dough forms a ball. When you have reached kneading for 10 minutes and the dough has not formed a cohesive ball around the hook, add in two more tablespoons of flour and knead for an additional 30 seconds or until a cohesive ball of dough forms. Turn off the machine.
- Sprinkle flour onto your work surface and empty the dough onto it. Hand knead for about 15 seconds to form a nice round ball. Place in a large oiled bowl and flip the dough over so it’s oiled on top. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in a warm oven to rise for about an hour, or until dough has doubled in size.
- Punch down dough. Empty onto a clean surface and divide the dough evenly in half. Gently form each dough piece into a round ball. Place each on a separate cookie sheet coated with non-stick spray. Cover and let rise for about 45 minutes in a warm place.
- Move oven racks to upper middle and lower middle position. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake bread for 30 to 40 minutes, rotating from top to bottom once halfway through. Bread is done when a thermometer inserted into the center reaches 180 degrees. If the crust is browning too deeply before the bread is done, cover with aluminum foil. When bread is done, remove and let cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes before serving.
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Category: Bread
- Cuisine: American
