insomniac baking: the 4am honey wheat loaf
for a recipe N made up, at 3:30am, when unable to sleep, without even putting in contacts, this bread turned out really awesomely and both loaves are already gone. Made monday night, baked tuesday evening.
Insomniac Honey Wheat Bread
- 4 cups wheat flour
- 2 cups white flour
- 1/3 cup honey
- 2 2/3 cup water
- 1 packet yeast
- 1 tsp salt
Combine flours and salt in a large mixing bowl. In another bowl, combine 1/3 cup honey and 1 cup hot water to make a honey simple syrup. (You can just do this in a 2 cup measuring cup, it’s easier.) Add the packet of yeast to this honey simple syrup, stir, and let sit for five minutes, until you can see yeast has activated and is foaming (maybe bubbling a bit).
Add this mixture to your flours. Add the remaining 1 and 1/3 cup water. Mix until incorporated, then knead five to ten minutes. At the end of this time, form dough into a ball.
Wash out and dry the mixing bowl. Add 4 tbsp vegetable oil to coat the sides of the bowl. Place dough in the bowl and turn so all sides are coated with oil, then set in the bottom of the bowl.
Cover with a towel and allow to rise until around noon the next day (or until dough has doubled in size). Divide dough in half, roll into logs, then place into two loaf pans. Preheat oven to 400.
After loaves have risen for an hour (or until they’re as tall as you’d like), put in the oven and bake at 400 F for 45 minutes to an hour.
Eat while still warm.
