Wheat Sandwich Bread

In the world of homemade breads, I feel like people are always on a quest for a great sandwich bread. One that is soft and yet won’t fall apart when you try to spread condiments on it, but also has a crust that proves it was homemade.

I have made many breads over the years also questing for a favorite sandwich bread for my ever picky small people. They have all been delicious but have lacked something.

A few weeks back my husband found a treadle powered grind stone (something that he has wanted for many years) at an estate sale not too far from our house. It just so happened that the estate sale was on a day that he worked, so I enlisted the help of his brother to get him this much desired tool. While I was there I took a stroll through the kitchen and I brought home a cookbook! Bet you didn’t see that one coming, lol. I picked it because it had many handwritten recipes folded up in its pages and seemed to be well loved and used. This edition was also from January of 1958, the same time my grandparents got married.

I took the white bread recipe from this book and adapted it to be a wheat bread.

Ingredients:

1 C. Milk Scalded

1 C. warm water (not hot)

3 Tbsp. Sugar or Honey (if using Honey I only add 2 Tbsp)

2- 1/4 tsp. Yeast

1 tsp. Salt

6 Tbsp. Lard (or shortening)

2 C. Whole Wheat Flour

4 C. All purpose Flour

Add milk and water in a bowl, I like to add the sugar/honey now to allow it to dissolve. Now because I am using lard that we rendered and have stored in its solid state I also add this now again to allow it to melt. Let the mixture sit for a bit to cool off. If you add your yeast too early the heat of the scalded milk will kill the yeast. I place my hand on the outside of the bottom of the metal bowl, if I can keep my hand there for 20-30 seconds without thinking it too hot then its ready for the yeast. Mix the yeast into the mixture then let it rest. You will see that the yeast has activated by the foaming (see above photo).

Add the flour (one cup at a time) and salt and mix. The mixture will transition from a liquid to a solid.

At this point let the dough rest, cover with a towel and wait for it to double in size about 15-20 minutes.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and kneed with your hands just for a minute or two, you don’t want to kneed too much as it will make the bread tough. Shape the bread into a small rectangle.

Then simply cut it in half. Shape both haves into rectangles and place them into greased bread pans.

Cover with a towel and let the bread rise again. You want the top of the bread to be just over the edge of the pan when it goes into the oven as it will continue to rise while baking.

Bake for 35 minutes at 400 degrees F.

Small man was very excited to have some bread. Let me know what you think of this sandwich bread recipe.

Enjoy!