Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

     Baking bread makes my apartment smell marvelous.  It's a homey smell, one that beckons me to the kitchen.  It makes me want wait by the oven with butter in hand, to slather over that first slice. 

     Home made bread is a treat. Nay, an indulgence.  There is a time investment.  And for those who knead the dough by hand, a built-in work out.

     I rely on my Kitchenaid stand mixer.  I cannot begin to tell you how much fun it is to watch the mixer do all of the hard work for me.  It is a fun, edible science experiment to watch flour come together with various liquids and become playdough.  I love how yeast happily interacts with a warm cocoon of dough to produce an even bigger, but now fluffy dough ball.  It's like magic.

     This is the best home made, 100% whole wheat bread I've ever made.  Most of the time, bread made using only whole wheat flour turns out like a brick.  And it's a bit bitter, too.  This recipe came from the King Arthur website and they got it right.  There's even the addition of a "secret" ingredient: orange juice.  The OJ cuts the bitterness of traditional whole bread, giving it a sweetness that's closer to white breads.

     This bread has a better, finer texture than other whole wheat bread recipes...not as tender as white bread, but certainly not crumbly-coarse either.  It slices very well--if you make homemade bread, you know what a pain slicing it can be!  I didn't even need a bread knife to get thin-ish, uniform slices.

     If you're on the lookout for a 100% whole wheat bread recipe, try this one, from the King Arthur Flour website.  You'll like it.  (Nutrition facts are also listed at the website.)