Whole Wheat Walnut Bread

Recipe Marathon - Day 6

This is yet another bread that I made from Whole Grains baking book by King Arthur Flour. I borrowed the book from the library and I’m totally in love with it. There are a ton of recipes that I’ve already bookmarked to make. I’m planning to buy it from Amazon because there’s no way I can make all my bookmarked dishes before the time runs out on the book.

This is probably the first yeast bread that I baked, not including pizza crusts & naan breads. We really liked the soft bread with the slightly crunchy crust. It is not too sweet nor too savory which makes it ideal for both sweet & savory additions. We had it for breakfast with nutella, butter & jelly and for lunch with egg salad.

Recipe from Whole Grains Baking Book.
Ingredients:
Whole Wheat flour – 3 cups (Recipe called for traditional, I used white ww)
Instant Yeast – 2½ tsp
Walnuts – ¾ cup
Light or Dark Brown sugar – 2tbsp, firmly packed
Vegetable Oil – 2tbsp
Orange Juice - 3tbsp
Lukewarm water - 1 cup

Method:

• Combine all the ingredients, and mix & knead them until you have a soft, smooth dough. I used by hands, but you can use a stand mixer or bread machine to do this. Cover and allow the dough to rise until its puffy and nearly doubled in bulk, 1 to 2 hours.
• Lightly grease an 8½ x 4½ inch loaf pan. Gently deflate the dough, and shape into a 8" log. Place in the prepared pan. Cover it gently with lightly greased plastic wrap or a proof cover, and allow it to rise till it's crowned about 1" over the rim of the pan, 1½ to 2½ hours.
  
• Near the end of the bread's rising time, preheat the oven to 350ºF.
• Uncover and bake the bread for about 40 minutes., tenting it with foil after 15minutes.
  
• The bread is done when it is golden and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers 190ºF. (I don't have any such fancy equipment in my kitcehn but the bread was definitely done and delicious.)
• Remove it from the oven, after a minute or so turn it out onto a rack.
  
• Brush with melted butter (I brushed some earth balance), if desired; to keep the crust soft.
• Cool the bread 30 minutes before slicing.