A good time for loafing: it's easy to make whole wheat bread - in a machine or by hand - includes recipes - Getting Started

Vegetarian Times, Sept, 1995 by Susan Jane Cheney

AS TEMPERATURES cool down, appetites pick up, and puttering around in the kitchen with something besides a salad becomes appealing again. What better way to warm the hearth than with a loaf of homemade whole grain bread?

If breadmaking intimidates you, lighten up; it's rather simple once you understand the process. Though time is important for developing a bread's taste and texture, the dough does most of the work for you. Bread machines do everything once you've added the ingredients and pressed the appropriate buttons. Handmade bread requires some mixing, kneading, shaping, shuttling loaves in and out of the oven, and a somewhat watchful eye throughout, but all are easily mastered.

Even if you bake by machine, it's helpful to understand how a dough mixture changes on its way to becoming bread. The moistened yeast, deprived of oxygen, converts the grain's carbohydrates into simple sugars, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide, the gas that makes the dough rise. Given sufficient time, this process (known as fermentation) gradually transforms the grain physically and enzymatically, ultimately enhancing the texture, flavor, digestibility and preventing spoilage of the finished bread.

ONLY THE BEST WILL DO

WHICHEVER METHOD you choose, only flour, yeast, water and salt are essential for whole wheat bread; oil and sweetener are optional. Always start with fresh, good-quality ingredients. For best results, begin when the ingredients are at room temperature.

Use bread flour rather than pastry flour. It's high in gluten, a protein that becomes elastic when kneaded and holds the dough together while it expands. Store your flour in the freezer or refrigerator to keep it fresh.

For leavened bread, you'll also need commercial yeast. Active dry yeast is available in packets stamped with an expiration date, and sometimes also in bulk. Check yeast's viability by adding a bit to lukewarm water and sprinkling a little flour on top. This mixture should start forming fine bubbles within a few minutes when placed in a warm spot.

The other ingredients bread requires are water and salt. Salt not only adds flavor, but it also regulates the yeast's activity. Oil contributes moistness, a tender texture and rich flavor. A bit of sweetener can enhance taste and stimulate the yeast; when used in excess, though, it masks the subtle sweetness of grains and interferes with dough development.

PUSH-BUTTON BAKING

AUTOMATIC BREADMAKERS are revitalizing home bread baking by making it possible to enjoy fresh, homemade bread with little fuss. There are nearly two dozen models on the market and numerous cookbooks to go with them. These appliances are definitely a boon to many busy bread lovers: no strenuous mixing, doughy hands, or messy utensils and counters to contend with, yet you control what goes into your bread.

The main disadvantage of automatic breadmakers is that breadmaking is as much art as science. Machines can't adjust to variable conditions, such as air temperature, humidity or the moisture content of flour. Moreover, machine baking does away with the meditative moments and sensual pleasure many of us associate with working a dough by hand.

Most breadmakers hold 1 to 2 pounds of dough and produce square, rectangular or round loaves, depending on motor capacity, pan size and shape. Some feature a whole grain setting, indicating they can handle heftier doughs. Many machines offer several timing cycles to benefit different types of doughs, as well as a "delayed start" timer, ensuring that dough or baked bread is ready when you are.

Be sure to read the manufacturer's instruction booklet thoroughly, so you know the order in which to add ingredients and understand the timing mechanisms of your particular machine. It's probably also a good idea to try some of the recipes that come with the machine to familiarize yourself with it.

My machine has a whole grain setting and makes loaves weighing up to 2 pounds, containing a maximum of 5 cups of flour. The whole grain cycle takes 4 1/2 hours. It begins with an initial rest period, followed by mixing, kneading, three dough rises and baking. The pan is a vertical rectangle, so smaller loaves come out nearly square.

For a 1 1/2-pound whole wheat loaf, I load the following ingredients:

1 1/3 cups water

4 tsp. sweetener

1 1/3 tsp. salt

4 tsp. vegetable oil

4 cups whole wheat bread flour

2 tsp. (1 package) active dry yeast

In the Vegetarian Times test kitchen, we loaded the following ingredients for a 1-pound loaf:

3/4 cup water

1 Tbs. sweetener

3/4 tsp. salt

1 Tbs. vegetable oil

2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp. yeast

These recipes work in most bread machines--just be sure to add the ingredients in the sequence specified in your machine's manual. Then select the proper settings, turn on the machine and go about your business. Some automatic bread makers have a cool-down mode; otherwise, don't forget to remove the baked bread promptly in order to avoid a soggy loaf.

MACHINE-MADE 1 1/2 LB.-LOAF, PER SLICE: 118 CAL.; 4G PROT.; 2G FAT; 23G CARB.; 0 CHOL.; 179MG SOD.; 4G FIBER. VEGAN