Wheat Italian Bread

I have to say,  I was skeptical of this particular recipe, but I wanted an alternative to white bread. I decided to give it a shot.

I found the following recipe from Food.com.

• 1 1/4 cups water (105-115 deg.F.)
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar or 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 cups bread flour
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons cornmeal , for dusting baking sheet

I added all ingredients (except cornmeal), in the above order to the bread machine. I ran it on a dough cycle, which took about 1 hour and 50 minutes.

Turn it out on to a floured surface and split it in two. Then roll it out into approx. a 5" x 12" rectangular shape. Roll from the long end, then seal the seams.  Grease a cookie sheet and sprinkle on cornmeal. Place bread loaves seam side down and cover with a wet towel. Let rise about 45 minutes or until doubled in size. Create 4-5 slashes down the bread and brush with water. Sprinkle with whole wheat flour.  Bake for 15-20 minutes on 400. Eat warm. This last part is super important.

This bread was tasty. I also roasted up some wonderful garlic but the hubsters threw it away before I could snap a photo. What kind of heathen throws away a head of delicious roasted garlic. I thought about pulling a "George Costanza" and picking it out of the garbage to eat it, but thought better in front of the children. I can just image them doing the same thing at someone's house or at school. Oh, the horror.



All in all, this bread was tasty but missing the crunchy delicious outer crust that I love on bread. Then again, I wasn't going for French bread, I was going for Italian, so it hit the spot. I can see this being even better with the garlic put in the dough. Next time. All in all I rate it a 7 for being soft, tasty and better for me then all white bread.