Magic Rise Whole Wheat Bread- EASY!!!

Makes 2 small loaves and one large loaf or two very large loaves (I have adapted the size of the batch to fit in my smaller Kitchen Aid Mixer.)

3 ¾ cup hot water
½ cup cooking oil
½ cup of either honey, molasses, brown sugar, or raw sugar
3 teaspoons salt
4 ½ teaspoons dry yeast
7 ½ cups whole wheat flour

In the mixer, blend the water, oil, sugar, and salt. Add 4 ½ cups of whole wheat flour, then add yeast and blend again. Add three cups flour and change to the dough hook on the mixer. Allow the mixer to kneed for 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Grease the pans. I use Pam. The dough should not be stiff. It should be somewhere between cake batter and bread dough, so don’t be alarmed. But you can add more flour if you want to make it a little stiffer. This is a very flexible recipe.

Pour the bread dough into the bread pans. Turn off the oven and place loaves in warm oven for 20 minutes to rise. They should rise to just above the rim of the pans. After rising, turn oven on to 350 degrees and bake loaves for 45 minutes. Remove loaves from pans and place on rack to cool. Brush tops with butter and cover with a towel to cool.

This is a recipe that I got from my mother-in-law, Chris Cobb. She has been making it for years. We love it because it makes a hearty, dense, crumbly bread, and all of the ingredients can be found in your food storage. I also love it because I hardly even have to touch the bread. You mix it and stick it in the oven. There is no kneading or waiting for it to rise for an hour.