Recipe: Cracked Wheat Bread

When my mother was first diagnosed, she hurled herself headlong into a quasi-macrobiotic diet and promptly started losing weight.  The rest of us started pushing back on the diet idea after a particularly unfortunate bok choi smoothie incident (as her oncologist, the incomparable Dr. Kwok-Kin Wong, put it, "I'm Asian and even I won't eat that stuff.").

That was when I got serious about whole-grain breads, beyond the occasional whimsical effort; working out how to pack the maximum nutrition into the most appetizing slice possible.  I'm still tinkering.  This effort turned out particularly well.

Cracked Wheat Bread

3 cups boiling water
2/3 cups bulghur wheat
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup flax meal
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup dry milk
2 packages active dry yeast
2 cups whole wheat flour
4 cups all-purpose flour
6 teaspoons King Arthur Flour whole grain bread improver
2 teaspoons salt
1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Seeds or oats for top of loaves

In the bowl of a KitchenAid mixer, combine the first eight ingredients.  Allow to cool to non-yeast-killing temperature, then stir in the yeast and proof for five minutes or so.  Add the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, and salt.  Stir to combine, then loosely cover the bowl and allow to rest for half an hour.

With the dough hook, knead for 5-10 minutes.  The dough will remain very wet and sticky.  Place dough in a greased bowl, turning once, then cover and let rise until doubled.  Punch down and divide in half; shape each half into a loaf and place in a greased 9x5" loaf pan.  Cover and let rise again until the dough is about 1" over the rim of the pans.  Heat oven to 375.

Brush top of loaves with egg mixture and sprinkle with seeds or oats.  Bake 35-40 minutes, checking after the first 20 minutes - cover with foil if the loaves are getting too brown.

Remove from pans and cool on a rack.

Yield:  2 loaves