Vegan Whole Wheat Bread

Here I come with yet another bread recipe but this one is a basic whole wheat bread. No fancy things in here and I believe ingredients used in here are available in almost every part of the world. I used the recipe from King Arthur Flour website. But since it is hot and humid here and since I was using the Durum atta flour from the Indian store, I ended up using a lot more flour than what the original recipe called for. To avoid extra chubby loaf, I split into two leaner loaves. When I say leaner, if I had smaller length pan, it wouldn't have been this short in height. But since the main bread consumers in our house are my kids, I thought it is alright if it is smaller. If and when you try this, use less water in the beginning so that you don't have to use lot of flour. Another option is if you use brown sugar or sugar in the place of maple syrup, you don't have to worry about adding extra flour at all.

Ingredients:

• Warm water - 1 1/2 cup
• Maple Syrup - 1/3 cup (You can use Honey then it won't be vegan or use plain sugar)
• Oil - 3 TBSP
• Salt - 1 1/2 tsp
• Active dry yeast - 1 1/2 tsp
• Whole Wheat Flour - 4 1/2 cups (Original recipe has 3 1/2 cups)

Method:

In a large bowl, combine warm water, maple syrup and yeast. Let it sit for about 10 minutes or till frothy. Now add the salt, oil. Mix well. Slowly start adding flour to make a smooth dough. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes or until you get a smooth dough. If it is sticky, instead of adding more flour, try coating your hands with oil and then knead.

Coat with oil and let it rest for about an hour or till double in volume. After the initial rise, deflate the dough gently and on a lightly floured surface, shape into the loaf. Grease a 9 X 5 pan with vegetable oil spray and place the shaped dough in it.(If you want to get a chubby loaf) Else divide into two loaf pans. Cover loosely with an oiled aluminum foil and place in a warm place till double about 45 minutes to an hour. Towards the end of final rise, preheat the oven to 350 F. When ready to bake, place the pan in the oven and bake for 25 minutes. Loosely tent with aluminum foil and bake for another 10 - 15 minutes or till the crust is nicely brown and bottom sounds hollow when tapped. Cool on wire rack. You could brush with some milk or milk oil mixture before baking to get a nice color. I didn't do any of those. You could brush with melted butter once it comes out of the oven to get a softer crust. I didn't do that either.

Note:
If you decide to bake this as one loaf, you will have to increase the bake time by another 5 - 10 minutes.
I am sending these loaves to weekly 'Yeastspotting' hosted by Susan.

Happy Baking!!