Perfect Homemade Wheat Sandwich Bread

I am so angry and irritated with Apple, that I am seriously tempted to migrate back to the world of PC/ Android. I’ve owned a mac for over 10 years now. I have an iPad mini. I have an iPhone. My husband has an iPhone. I am generally known to be a mac lover. 

Here’s the thing: I recently updated my iMac to run on iOS8. (I know I’m arriving little late to the party here, but it always takes me forever to get around to installing software updates.) A few days after the installation, I open iPhoto (as I always do) to offload the photos from my camera that I just took. These photos were, in fact, of the very same homemade wheat sandwich bread recipe I am sharing with you today. And btw the recipe is as flippin’ delicious as it looks in the photos. But we’ll get to that part in a bit, I’m going to finish complaining about Apple first.

Much to my surprise I discovered iPhoto has turned into just plain “Photo”. I can no longer find my ‘iPhoto events’ which I previously used to organize my 28,796 photos and 319 videos. My April 2015 photo stream no longer appears to be active and importing the many pictures I take of my kids on a daily basis into the proper location where they belong. As far as I can tell all of my time spent organizing my photo collection has been for not, as all my photos appear to be in one big mixed up jumble. The food is mixed in with the pictures of the kids, with the video…. it’s just a big freakin’ mess. At this point I am so hopping mad I have to walk away from the computer for a while. 

I go complain about my frustrations to my darling husband for a while, start a new loaf of bread (Who knew that baking bread could be so soothing?), and then I head back to the computer, hop on the internet and do a little research to find out just exactly what damage has been done to my beloved photo collection. I discover that my photo events still do exist. Thank goodness! All of my photos have not been added to the library chronologically so when they get ordered by the computer’s perceived date the photo was taken, they actually end up out of order. So at least I can still figure out what belongs where.  I discover photo stream works nothing like it used to; and I am still kind of confused about how to tell if my photos are in the cloud or on the computer where they belong. I am no longer freaking out, still mad, have decided with great certainty that I will no longer use iPhoto or Photo or whatever the heck it’s called to manage my photos; and kicking myself for not migrating away from iPhoto sooner, because I already knew that iPhoto was finicky, no other program could access the iPhoto library to open, and all my photo files were being stored in an unorganized stupid way on the back end. The actual files store via iPhoto are notoriously difficult to access. And any messing with the direct files runs a high risk of corrupting your entire library. Which I know from first hands since I have managed to corrupt an entire library, loose most of my original photos, and end up with nothing but thumbnails due to a glitch with my back up service. What kind of idiot still uses a program when they know all that? I say to myself. A lazy idiot that’s who. 

I finally decide that what I’m going to do is migrate my entire library out of iPhoto into plain old file folders stored in my documents. I will no longer be at the whims and caprice of Apples changes to their programs, nor carry the same risk of the dreaded corrupted library. I was going to use Adobe to browse my photos, and that was that. There are two ways to “jailbreak” your photos from the iPhoto library. I’ll spare you the details, but if you’re interested you can read about it here. It took me a while to get the job done but my photos have been liberated. I also now have them properly backed up to dropbox, my back up service backblaze, and on my external hard drive. There will be no more photo failures at my house.

I probably won’t really leave mac. I do adore my iMac and other iDevices. But, I definitely learned my lesson about relying on any one program too much. My philosophy at this point is keep the important stuff in files, in non-proprietary file formats, and keep it all really well backed up! 

I think a few good things did came out of all this. One: when backing up all my photos to the external drive I discover a back up of the photos mentioned above that I thought I had lost, so I was pretty psyched about that. Two: my very important to me photo collection is no longer stored in an i-anything program. Three: I discovered bread baking is very soothing when your insanely pissed off at something on the computer. And with that not so subtle transition let me tell you about the bread! 

As I mentioned I find baking bread to be very soothing and satisfying. As many have also said, there really is something satisfying about seeing yeast, flour, and water come together to form a loaf of bread. I’ve baked a lot of different types of breads, admittedly ending up with varying degrees of success at the end, but, it’s always fun. Even when my bread turns out so so, I keep working at it, coming back to a recipe repeatedly, or sometimes scraping the whole thing and starting over with a brand new recipe until I get it right. I make a pretty darn good loaf of Italian, and lovely croissants, and a mean chocolate banana bread. The one type of bread I’ve never had a great deal of success with is the sandwich loaf, until now. The recipe I used is adapted from the all around wonderful Common Sense Kitchen, and yields a loaf of bread with a soft but slightly chew crust, and tender crumb inside, yet, it’s still sturdy enough to slice thinly for sandwiches once it’s fully cooled. Oh, and the flavor! This is the kind of bread that makes sandwiches worth eating! (Though, if I’m totally honest, forget the sandwich. Give me a nice warm slice slathered with butter, thank you very much.) 

The other thing I really I really like about this recipe is that it’s not particularly difficult. Yes it takes time: you have to make the sponge, let the sponge rest and develop, make the actual dough, knead the dough, let it rise, shape loaf, let it rise again, and finally bake it. But, no single step in the sequence is insurmountable, even for one new to the art of bread. So, if you are new to the art of bread, but heck, even if you’re not, let me encourage you to give this recipe a try. So. Worth. It. Remember… slathered with butter :) enjoy. 

Perfect Homemade Wheat Sandwich Bread– Yields one loaf. Adapted, barely, from The Common Sense Kitchen. 

Sponge

• 1/4 cup quick cooking bulgar wheat
• water to boil the bulgar wheat
• 1/2 cup warm cooking liquid reserved after boiling the bulgar wheat
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 wheat flour
• 1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 and 1/8 teaspoons active dry yeast

Dough

• 1/2 tablespoon kosher or sea salt
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 to 3/4 cups wheat flour
• 1/4 cup quick cooking oats
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1/2 cup skim milk 

Additional

• saran wrap
• canola oil to coat rising bowl/ loaf pan
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons melted butter to brush the top of loaf after baking

Sponge

1. Place the 1/4 cup of bulgar what in a small cooking pot with lid. Add water to the pot so that the grains are fully covered, use a minimum of 3/4 of a cup of water, additional if needed. Cover the pot. Set the stove to high and bring to a boil. Cook for two minutes at a boil, then immediately remove the pot from the heat. Strain the bulgar from the water,  reserve 1/2 cup of the warm cooking liquid, discard any additional cooking liquid. 

2. Add the cooked bulgar wheat, reserved cooking liquid, all purpose flour, wheat flour, brown sugar, and active dry yeast to the bowl of a stand mixer. Use the paddle attachment to mix thoroughly. Cover the mixing bowl with saran wrap. Place the mixing bowl in a room temperature (about 70*F) location to develop, for 5 to 7 hours. 

Dough

 1. Return the mixing bowl to the stand mixer. Add the sea salt, 1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 1/2 cup wheat flour, 1/4 cup oats, honey, and skim milk to the bowl. Use the paddle attachment to mix until dough is formed and begins to leave the sides of the bowl. If the dough is very sticky add the additional 1/4 cup of wheat flour and mix until combined into the dough. 

2. Switch the paddle attachment out for the dough hook and knead the bread for 10 minutes on low speed. Alternatively knead by hand for 12-14 minutes. 

3. Lightly oil a large bowl with canola oil. Place the dough in the bowl turning to cover the top of the dough with oil. Cover loosely with saran wrap and allow the dough to rise at room temperature (70*F) for an hour, until doubled in bulk. 

Shape The Loaf

1. Lightly oil a loaf pan with canola oil.

2. Punch down the dough and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Use your hands to flatten the dough out until it is about the length of a loaf pan and twice as wide. This does not need to be perfectly even. Fold the dough into thirds lengthwise with the smoothest side of the dough facing out. Place in the loaf pan. Loosely cover with saran wrap and place in a room temperature (70*F) for the final rise. Allow the dough to rise for an hour to and hour and a half. 

Bake

1. Have the oven preheated to 400* with the rack placed in the top center position, by the time you are ready to bake. Place the uncovered loaf pan in the oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the bread is a deep golden brown. The loaf will make a hollow sound when knocked on. 

2. Immediately remove the loaf from the pan and transfer to a cooling rack. Immediately brush the top and sides of the loaf with the 1 and 1/2 tablespoon of melted butter. Allow the loaf to cool at least 20 minutes before cutting. 

*Note: Bread can be stored several days in an air tight container.