Honey Almond Whole Wheat Bread

For my first post, I thought I should start with the basics: homemade bread! Let me start by saying I've never made bread before, but am a total carb-o-holic. So when I saw bread being baked on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives a few nights ago, I knew I had to try it. The following day I bought the ingredients, found a few recipes, and started baking! Although it is time consuming, it's totally worth it: nothing tastes better than fresh bread right out of the oven.

Honey Almond Whole Wheat Bread

Total Time: 3 hrs, 40 min
Yield: 2 9x5 loaves

Ingredients:
1 envelope yeast
2 cups water
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/8 cup molasses
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
Handful of slivered almonds (optional)

Directions:

1. If you buy standard baking yeast, dissolve it in the warm water while you work with the other ingredients. If you use instant yeast, skip this step.

2. In a large bowl, combine butter, molasses, honey and salt and mix well. You can use a hand mixer or stand mixer, but I used a whisk- I'm nerdy and love doing those things by hand!

3. If yeast was dissolving in water, add directly to honey mixture. If using instant yeast, put flour in a separate bowl and add to flour, then add water.

4. Gradually add flour to honey mixture and mix until combined.

5. Turn onto floured surface and knead until smooth. This is as fun as it sounds: get ready to get your hands sticky!

6. Place in buttered bowl and let rise until double.

I left my dough like this, and when I returned an hour later...

It turned into this monster!

7. Punch down and let rest for a few minutes.

I got REALLY into this whole "punching" thing...

8. Divide dough into 2 parts and shape into loaves.

9. Placed into greased pans and let rise for about an hour. Instead of doing two 9x5 loaves, I did one 9x5 loaf and two mini loaves. I found the mini pans in my mom's cabinet and couldn't resist!

I walked away from my dough to work out, and an hour later...

they rose!

10. Brush butter on top, and sprinkle with slivered almonds.

11. Bake at 375 for 30 to 35 minutes.

Drumroll, please...

Ta da! Honey Almond Whole Wheat Bread!

For breakfast the next day, I had a slice with butter and apricot jam alongside my coconut greek yogurt. It was such a treat!

Have you ever made homemade bread? Did you try my recipe and have a suggestion? Let me know and comment below!