I love whole wheat bread, in fact, it is pretty much all we eat if I have to buy ‘store bought’ bread. But, it is weird to make and it always has it’s way of making me feel crazy.

Point 1: Whole Wheat doesn’t have much gluten in it. When you are baking white bread, it rises. A lot. Because of the gluten and a bunch of other stuff…a.k.a. Yeast…

Point 2: It is going to have a flat top, there is nothing you can do about that. Especially if it is WHOLE WHEAT, not half wheat. This usually causes me to panic and sit in front of my stove asking myself, “Why?” and banging my head. I know why, it’s just aggravating.

Point 3: They can be heavy. You can’t eat an entire loaf without feeling like there is an anvil in your stomach. Wheat is heavy.

I don’t have a bread maker, I am assuming if I did, Whole Wheat bread would not be such a headache.

So why make it, you ask? Well, it’s good for you and sometimes things that are good for you take the longest and are the biggest headache to make. Fortunately, I’m not a cavewomen, so they sell Whole Wheat flour that is already ground and I’m not sitting by a fire with a mortar and pestle. There is a cave person somewhere grinding a whole bunch of Wheat, just for crazies like me. I think his name is King Arthur (and, I used his recipe, there is not gluten flour in it).

My favorite part about this recipe? “Test it for doneness by removing it from the pan and thumping it on its bottom.” I got to that and had some questions. First, the bread is freaking HOT! My hands are not asbestos, what am I going to thump it with? Second, that seems a bit violent. What did I do? I thumped it’s bottom and burnt my knuckles. Good thing I  need those. Thanks for the bad advice, Arthur.

WHOLE wheat and whole grains are incredibly good for you. I know it looks like I eat a lot of sweets (and I probably eat more than I should), but we keep things fairly balanced around here and I always try to make sure my kids are eating lots of whole grains. Although this bread may not be the simplest to make, it does result in a very yummy bread. But I will admit, whole wheat bread is a bit of a headache.

Enjoy your grains and don’t thump hot bread with bare hand.