Bodacious bread: A friend in knead is a friend indeed

Got wheat?

If you're watching your food bill, now is the time to break out the wheat grinder and use that food storage sitting in your basement.

Bread is not a huge budget-breaker, but a few dollars per loaf can add up quickly if your family tends to eat a lot of toast, sandwiches and so on.

One of my tennis partners, Jeralyn Miller of Kaysville, gave all of her tennis pals a loaf of homemade bread for Christmas. A lot of people are put off by making whole wheat bread because the results are often so coarse and dense, with a strong "wheaty" taste. But this was light in both color and texture, and mild in flavor.

Jeralyn makes her bread by hand, using white winter wheat, which is lighter and milder than red winter wheat. After grinding the wheat, she stores it in the freezer, as a way to retain nutrients.

If you use yeast only sporadically, I'd recommend storing that in the freezer as well to prolong shelf life.

Her recipe calls for dough enhancer and wheat gluten. Gluten is the natural protein in the wheat grain. It gives the dough elasticity and improves the bread's texture. Dough enhancer helps the bread rise higher, also making it lighter in texture. They can be found at most grocery stores.

WHEAT BREAD

2 1/2 cups warm water

1 1/2 tablespoons yeast

6-7 cups fresh whole wheat flour

1/3 cup honey

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 tablespoons dough enhancer

1 tablespoon wheat gluten

1-2 tablespoons of milled flax seed (optional)

2 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vegetable oil for kneading

Combine the warm water, yeast and 2 cups of the whole wheat flour in a large mixing bowl. Let sit for 15 minutes. Add the honey, oil, dough enhancer, gluten, flax seed, salt and about 4-5 cups additional flour and stir until the dough begins to clean the sides of the mixing bowl. Dough should be smooth and elastic. Do not add too much flour or the dough will be stiff and too dry.