Soft Wholemeal Bread

After my Breville died from overwork, I decided to buy a more heavy duty bread machine. We no longer buy bread in any shape or form so the breadmaker has to withstand the heavy usage. The one I am now using is a Sunbeam Quantum Smartbake with a big pan which can make a 1.5kg loaf and best of all it is programmable.

I have different programs for the 4 seasons. In the heat of summer, bread usually take a shorter time to rise but in winter, the house being so cold it does affect the rising time even though the breadmaker has its own heating element.

We love this bread. Even though it is wholemeal, it is not dense. In fact it is soft, light, fluffy and very pliable.

This is our daily loaf. Toast in the morning and sandwiches for lunch. Mr Redneck likes his thinly sliced wherelse I like mine like doorstops.


If you try this recipe and it turns out dense, then it has not risen enough. Since I like my bread light and fluffy, I make sure it is given enough time to rise even if it takes 4 hours for me to make a loaf. When buying a breadmaker make sure you have a separate bake function to enable you to have some control and not allow the breadmaker to dictate the timing.

Makes 1.5 kg loaf size

Ingredients
410 ml warm water (400ml if using fresh yeast)

350gm wholemeal flour
275gm high grade (bread) flour
4½ tsp gluten flour
1 Tbsp ground linseed

1 Tbsp oats
1½ Tbsp lecithin granules
2½ Tbsp milk powder
2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar

2½ tsp surebake yeast or 16gm fresh yeast



Method
1. Place ingredients into the bread pan according to your breadmaker instructions.

2. Setting : Wholewheat or set your own program. Mine from start to finish takes a minimum of 3.53 hours in winter.

3. Bread dough will rise slightly above top of pan before the baking process begins.

Ready to start baking......................Ready to Eat

4. Slice when cooled.

Note :

1. I use lecithin granules as I find it produces a better loaf. Plus it has heaps of nutritional benefits.

2. Surebake yeast have bread improver in it.

3. For every ½ cup of wholemeal flour, 1 tsp of gluten flour is required. If adding more or less wholemeal please adjust gluten flour accordingly.

4. When more or less wholemeal flour is used, please adjust the quatity of bread flour used. The total weight of flour (wholemeal+gluten+bread flour+linseed) should always add up to 650gm.

5. Winter program setting : Knead 23 minutes; 1st rise 30 minutes; 2nd rise 31 minutes; 3rd rise 99 minutes; Bake 52 minutes


Tip
1. Different brand flour does make a difference to the texture of the bread. Before the major price hike I use Champion or Edmonds but now have changed to Home brand which still has that 11% protein.

2. I find that when I use Champion wholemeal flour the bread is extra soft. Because of the steep price rise I have no choice but to wait for specials but in the meantime put up with Home brand.

Update 9 June 2011 : If using fresh yeast substitute surebake yeast with 16gm of fresh yeast and reduce water to 400ml. I have found that the dough rise much faster using fresh yeast.