So, today I made gluten free egg-free scones (which are delicious though a little over cooked... it was my first time after all.) The recipe for the scones will come after at least one more batch so that I can get a more exact baking time and measurements. I also made a gluten free egg free bread that is now baking. I plan to watch this a lot closer than I watched the scones for the last ten minutes or so there. I will post a recipe for that bread if it turns out as well as I am hoping it will.
First though let me post my healthy whole wheat recipe and a fun variation on it.~
Whole Wheat Bread
2 cups stone ground whole wheat flour
2 cups unbleached white flour *
1/2 cup ground flax meal
2 eggs (room temp)
2 tablespoons active dry yeast
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons molasses
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups warm water (close to but not over 105 degrees)
Additional whole wheat flour for kneeding
*you can replace the white flour with all whole wheat flour but the resulting bread will have a courser texture as well as requiring quite a bit more kneeding.
In a small mixing bowl combine the water honey and yeast, set aside.
In a large mixing bowl combine white flour, flax meal, baking powder ans salt. When yeast has proofed (created a nice foamy layer over the surface) pour the yeast mixture over the dry ingredients. Roughly mix these ingredients with a wooden spoon. Add the eggs (it is very important the eggs are not cold so that they don't kill your yeast) and molasas, now stir this loose batter until it is well combined and smooth.
Start adding the 2 cups whole wheat flour 1/2 cup at a time. You will eventually have to give up on the spoon and start incorporating the remaining flour with your hands. It is a good idea to remove any rings, watches, and bracelet before you dig into the dough. When all of this flour has been added and the dough forms a nice ball turn it out onto a flour counter.
Kneed for 20 minutes, place the ball of dough into a bowl sprayed with PAM, turn ball to coat. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and set in a warm (but not hot) place for one hour. The dough should more than double in size. (I like to take this time to wash the dishes I just dirtied and clean my counter so it is clean and dry when I am ready to work with my dough again.)
Take the fluffy dough and turn it onto your clean dry counter. Kneed for at least 20 minutes. Respray your bowl and place dough in it, turning to coat. Cover again with your damp cloth. (Depending on the humidity where you live you may need to redampen the cloth.) Set aside until the dough has doubled again.
Turn dough out and punch it down. Devide the dough in half. Roll half of the dough into an oblong loaf shape. Place this in a non stick baking pan. You can do this with half of your dough, or make two loaves, or even freeze half of the dough for later use.
I took the second half of my dough and rolled it out to 1" thick. Then I cut this into 1" cube. When I had all of the bread dough cut up I tossed the dough cubes with 1/2 cup olive oil, 3 tablespoons each garlic, italian seasoning and rosemary. You can turn all of these into another non-stick loaf and press down or put 3 to 4 cubes in each tin in muffin tins, if you don't need a whole loaf at a time. The resulting load (if baked in a loaf pan) is great for intertaining, my roommate even told me that he didn't want to cut into the loaf because it was too pretty. :)
Once you have your dough in pans, set them in a warm place and cover with the damp cloth. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees at this time. When your bread doubles again place it in the oven and bake for about one hour. This will leave a heavy crust on your bread.
Turn loaves out onto a clean counter. Butter the tops of your loaves and then wrap completely in plasic wrap. Sweating your bread like this will improve the overall texture and give you and nice soft and chewy crust. After as little as 15 or 20 minutes you can cut into your fresh baked bread and enjoy that home baked goodness.
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