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Wholewheat Braided Bread…

June 15, 2012 by Ariel 6 Comments

Making bread can be intimidating but it’s really not THAT complicated as long a you follow the instructions.  Plus there is such gratification that comes from taking your homemade bread out of the oven.  Also don’t even get me started on the amazing smell that it will fill your house with.  MMmmmm just to think about it, I’m seriously melting.

I hope you’ll enjoy this basic recipe.  It’s actually one of the easiest bread recipe I’ve made so far and the result is a hit every time!  You only need a few basic ingredient that you can find anywhere and some upper body strength for the kneading.  Most bread recipes I will be posting are all to be made by hand without a bread machine like in the good old days 😉  It’s after making your first bread that you realize how comfortable we are these days to have everything so easily accessible and worry free.  I think we should all be very grateful for what we have and to live in such comfortable era…

– INGREDIENTS –

1 tablespoon of active dry yeast

1/2 cup of warm water (100F)

2 1/2 tablespoon of sugar

1 tablespoon of salt

1 cup of milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)

2 eggs

4 1/4 cup of wholewheat bread flour**

1- In a big mixing bowl, mix in the yeast, warm water and sugar together and let it stand for 15 minutes so the yeast has the time to bubble.

2- Add the milk, eggs, salt and 1 cup of flour to the yeast mixture and mix well together before adding the remaining flour one cup at the time.  If you have an electric mixer, I suggest you start with the regular whipping attachment and you transfer to the dough attachment when you’re adding the remaining flour till it form a ball that clean the side of the bowl.

3- transfer your ball of dough on a lightly floured surface (and this is where you will need some upper body strength)  knead the dough for a 10 big minutes.  I know it might sound like a lot but it’s so worth it.  Try not to cheap out on the kneading because that’s what make your bread more puffy and tasty.  As the time will pass, you’ll feel the dough’s texture changing a bit and by the last 2 minutes, it will be a lot easier to knead it because of all the air pockets you added by working the dough.

4- When that is done, place the ball of dough in another big mixing bowl that you previously greased.  Cover the bowl with a warm, humid and clean white rag and let it rise for 1 hour in a warm place.

5- When the dough doubled in size, punch it to remove the excess air and form another ball with it.  Once the ball is formed, split it in half then split each balls in 3.  In the end you should have in front of you 6 mini balls of dough.  Take each balls and roll them to end up to do 6 ropes of approximately 12inches.

Take 3 ropes and pinch the end to merge them together before braiding them.  Tuck each end under the bread and transfer it to a baking sheet covered in semolina flour like the photo below.  Cover again with a warm humid rag and let rise again for 1 hour.

6- When the breads doubles in size again, brush them with egg white and add toasted sesame seed on the top as decoration.  Put the breads the oven that you previously heated at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes, transfer on a cooling rack when it’s done and ENJOY!  🙂

…Mine took 26 minutes exactly if you’re wondering.

** You could have used regular all purpose flour (white or wholewheat) but I always prefer the result of the bread when we used the bread flour.  But I understand it’s not everybody who has some bread flour laying around so regular works fine too.  Maybe try to knead the dough 2 minutes more when using regular flour.

Filed Under: Bread, Recipes Tagged With: braided, braided bread, bread, flour, knead, recipe, wholesome, wholewheat

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Comments

  1. RnO says

    June 15, 2012 at 11:38 pm

    well, déjà en ligne, et plusieurs recettes ! yummy

    Reply
    • arielrebel says

      June 15, 2012 at 11:45 pm

      Oui ca commence!! Sympa ton blog en passant 🙂

      Reply
  2. Jean-Olivier says

    July 4, 2012 at 10:46 pm

    Allo ariel, je tiens a te dire que ton blog est vraiment bien conçu et que les recettes que j’ai essayé était superbe (le pain est vraiment bien réussi !!) merci pour tes conseils.

    Reply
    • arielrebel says

      July 4, 2012 at 11:57 pm

      Aww merci! et contente que tu as aimer la recette de pain! Il y en aura d’autres 🙂

      Reply
  3. christine says

    January 3, 2014 at 5:00 am

    this sounds like such a lovely recipe that I cannot wait to try! Thank you! Quick question: if in a pinch, is semolina flour necessary or can I do without it?

    Reply
    • arielrebel says

      January 10, 2014 at 9:06 pm

      It’s actually to help your bread to not stick at the bottom of your baking sheet… I’m guessing parchment paper could be a good replacement 🙂

      Reply

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