Raygon's Famous Wheat Bread

Sorry this is soooo late. This is the bread that we make now... no store bought bread in our house anymore. Matt usually does the bread making, but I have done it twice (so you know it's a pretty much sure thing/no-fail recipe). I'm eating it right now so that's what made me remember to post this. It's fantastic!

I'm going to give you the recipe the way I would need it... with notes and explanations and stuff...
You need:

2/3 C. oil
2/3 C. honey (here's a good trick.. before dumping in the oil, put the honey in the measuring cup too so it reads 1 1/3 cup... this way the honey just slides out and is way less messy.)
2/3 C. High Gluten Flour (you can get this at the grocery store)
2 C. Warm Water (not too warm or you'll kill the yeast)
3 C. Wheat Flour (we use the white wheat... red wheat makes it heavier)

Mix ... I just dump it all in my Bosch and mix on level 1 (looooove my Bosch).

2 more C. Warm Water (you can actually add all 4 cups of water all at once, but it splashes so I split it up.)

3 Tbsp Yeast

mix

1 Tbsp Salt (you need to mix before adding the salt because if you let the yeast and salt touch, I've heard you kill it)

While mixing on level one, add More Flour... 6-12 Cups... until the dough stops sticking to the sides anymore

Mix on level one for 8 minutes... kneading time

** I've heard of people doing all the initial mixing with a regular mixer, kneading the dough in a Bread Maker Machine, and then just taking the dough out rather than letting it bake in there too. I've never done it so I don't know for sure that it would work... maybe if you cut the recipe in half or something because this makes 4 big loaves and would be too much for a Bread Maker Machine. I've never actually kneaded the dough by hand either.. just watched my mom do it.

Then wet your hands a little (seems slimy, but it works) and take out 1/4 of the dough and shape it into a loaf. Place in a greased bread pan. Get all your loaves ready and let rise. Here's where Matt's tricky. He preheats the oven to around 100, then turns it off and lets it cool down just a little. It's got to be warm in there, but not too warm so it will kill the yeast. He lets the loaves rise in there, which doesn't take long at all.

He then takes them out, preheats the oven to 350 and bakes them for 20-25 minutes. Take the loaves out and let them rest in their pans for a little bit. I've learned that if you're too excited and dump them out too quickly, it'll smoosh them, and you'll end up with lopsided or flat loaves.

So this may look like a really complicated recipe, but that's just how I am. It actually is soooo easy and fool-proof, as evidenced by me. Good luck.

P.S. Somewhere along the way I've also heard that if you switch to wheat bread too quickly, you'll have "problems." Uh... no problems here.. except for the normal ones. I've had to retrain Jenna how to go potty. She got lazy somewhere along the way and was forgetting some pretty crucial steps.. as in the wiping step and the washing step. How's that for a perfectly good ending to a fabulous recipe!!