Fresh Whole Wheat Bread

Alright, first off! Kuddos! This is the first blog post. This blog is for my webmastering class, but I am also using it to push myself to take pictures our food for a cookbook that my boyfriend and I are making. He is health obsessed and I enjoy food, so I suppose it is a bonding activity for us. Anyways, I love this recipe. It is extremely simple and I make it on a weekly basis. I like to feel as though my bread is really part of my sandwiches rather than just being a holder for the rest of the ingredients. Making bread at home takes a small amount of patience, but not a significant amount of effort.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of instant yeast
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups of water

Instructions:

1. Combine the flour, yeast, and salt in a large bowl.
2. Add one and a half cups of water and stir until blended. The dough should be firm, but wet. Add small amount of water if necessary. (Look! The dough is done already!)
3. Cover the bowl in plastic wrap and let it sit for twelve to twenty four hours. The dough should have small air bubbles when it is ready for the next step.
4. Oil a nine by five inch loaf pan.
5. Scoop the dough into the pan.
6. Use a brush or a rubber spatula to set the dough evenly and to brush or drizzle the top with olive oil.
7. Cover the dough with a towel and let (yet again) sit for one to two hours until the dough is at or close to the top of the pan. When it is almost done rising, preheat the oven to 350 degrees farenheit.
8. Bake the bread until deeply brown: about forty five minutes. The internal temperature should be about 200 degrees farenheit and the center of the loaf.
9. After removing the loaf from the oven, turn the loaf out of the pan onto a wire rack and let cool without slicing.