Joel's Bread

This is a very forgiving whole wheat recipe. It isn't technically 100% whole wheat because of the gluten flour, but it is pretty close. I have made it a bunch under a lot of different circumstances and always had good results. This is the amount that I usually make. The original recipe was half this, and you can always make a half batch.

Yeast Mix:

• 2 tbsp dry active yeast
  
• 2 tsp sugar
  
• 1/2 cup warm water
  

Poolish:

• 1/2 cup honey, maple syrup, or molasses
  
• 4 cups warm water
  
• 1 cup gluten flour
  
• 4 cups whole wheat flour
  

Bread:

• 2/3 cup oil
  
• 1 tbsp salt
  
• 6-7 cup flour
  

Directions

In a large mixing bowl combine the yeast mix and let stand for approximately 10 minutes. If it doesn't foam up, your yeast is dead. Note I have found that letting it stand for too long causes the yeast to die back.

Add the honey and water to the yeast then mix in the gluten flour. Add the remaining flour and mix to a lumpy consistency. Let sit to rise for about an hour, the poolish should raise to about double the initial volume. 

Add the salt and oil to the poolish. The poolish should deflate and look quite wet. Add about 5 cups of the flour and mix with a spoon or table knife. Add flour a bit at a time until you can no longer effectively mix the dough. Turn out and knead the remaining flour into the dough until it is is a good consistency. The dough should be tacky and very supple, but not wet or sticky. It can take a lot of flour on a wet day. Make sure not to work too much flour in, if the dough gets too stiff the bread will not rise - unlike white bread. 

Here you have two choices.  You can rise the dough once, loaf, and bake, or you can rise twice. I typically let the dough rise twice - it gives the bread a very yeasty, almost alcohol-like smell that I love. It doesn't greatly change the texture.

You can make about 4 loaves from this recipe. I typically make the recipe into 2 sandwich loaves, a round and some rolls. Cook at 375 F for 45 minutes, cool and rack.

Enjoy.