Grandma King's 100% Whole Wheat Bread

This is another great bread recipe that has been made for a couple of generations in my family. I made it for the first time last week, and it seemed to take a lot less work than the traditional white bread that my Grandmommy used to make (if you don't count the work it took to grind my own wheat!). This is also a versatile bread- we used it for lots of different things, and all of them were yummy! (My favorite is toast that is broiled in the oven.) Do be careful with how much flour you put into the dough because too much will make the bread dry and tough after it's baked. The dough will be sticky, even after enough flour has been added! I forgot to do this, but you can spray your hands with pam or get them wet with water to help the dough not stick to your hands as much. One last note- my family is not used to eating 100% whole wheat, so I used 1/2 of my flour as regular white bread flour and it still was wonderful!

Grandma King's 100% Whole Wheat Bread

4 1/2 Cups of Hot Tap Water (really, it just needs to be warm enough to activate your yeast)
2/3 Cup Canola Oil
1 Cup honey
2 Tbl Salt
2 TBL Yeast dissolved with 1/2 Cup warm water
* Whole Wheat flour add enough flour until dough starts to pull away from the sides of your mixing bowl. (about 10 cups of flour and 1 cup of vital wheat gluten. See note below...)

Mix dough in your mixer for 10 minutes and then let then dough rest 10 minutes. Spray 4 loaf pans with pam and then shape dough into loafs and let rise until the dough reaches the lip of the bread pan. NOTE:The dough will be slightly sticky so just spray you hands with Pam or water when forming the loaves. Bake at 350 * for 30 to 35 minutes.

*You will use more flour if using freshly ground wheat. The wheat gluten helps to keep the bread fresher longer as well as helping create a nice texture. My mom does not use the wheat gluten and her bread is amazing. (This note is from my mom, and I didn't use the wheat gluten, but she says it not only helps the quality of the bread, it helps it to stay fresher for longer amounts of time.)