The Ranch Whole-Wheat Bread
Since the Ranch’s earliest days, guests have enjoyed this hearty whole-wheat bread. Taking a loaf home on the last day became a tradition-a way to, literally, “take The Ranch home.” We offer up this bread recipe for you until we can break bread together again.
Ingredients:
- 3 cups of warm water 105-110°F
- ¼ cup of wild-sage honey
- 1 packet of active dry yeast ( ¼ oz)
- ½ cup of cold-pressed safflower or sunflower oil
- 8 ½ – 9 ½ cups of stone-ground whole-wheat flour
- 1 cup of wheat-bran flakes
- 2 tbsp plus 1 tsp of poppy or sesame seeds
- 1 ½ tsp of sea salt
- 1 egg white, beaten (for glaze)
Directions:
- In a medium bowl combine water and honey. Sprinkle over yeast; stir to dissolve. Let stand 5 minutes or until frothy. Stir in oil if preparing dough by hand; knead thoroughly to ensure lightness and as much gluten as possible.
- In electric-mixer bowl or large bowl, combine yeast mix with oil, 8 ½ cups flour, bran, 2 tbsp seeds and salt. Knead dough in electric mixer fitted with dough hook. (Or knead by hand about 10 minutes on work surface.) If dough is very sticky, add ¼ cup flour at a time; continue to knead 10-15 minutes or until dough pulls away from sides of mixing bowl and is smooth and elastic.
- Shape dough into ball. Lightly brush large bowl with vegetable oil.
- Add dough, turning to coat surface. Cover with damp kitchen towel; let dough rise about 1 hour until volume doubles.
- Brush lightly with oil two 9 x 5 x 2” loaf pans. Punch down dough; divide in half. Knead until smooth. Shape into loaf pans. Make 1/8” lengthwise slash on each loaf. Let rise about 45 minutes until volume doubles.
- Brush tops with beaten egg white; sprinkle with remaining seeds.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Bake 35-40 minutes or until loaves sound hollow and golden brown on top. Remove from pans. Cool completely on racks before slicing.
- Makes 2 loaves, or 50 ½ -inch slices
- To freeze, wrap sliced loaves in plastic bags and keep up to 2 months.
Enjoy more Ranch recipes!
