The BEST whole wheat bread ever

I'm just a little picky about bread after working at a Great Harvest for 5 years. This bread is amazing! The first time I made it, it was great...but with practice, its gotten even more amazing.

The process is what makes this bread great! Some often don't like 100% whole wheat bread because its too dense. Well, this is no wonder bread, but for whole wheat bread it is so soft, and not lump in your stomach dense, perfect blend of flavors, and doesn't call for any enhancers, gluten, etc.

Whole Wheat Bread

3 cups hot water

1 Tbs. salt

1/4 c. oil

1/3 c. honey

2 Tbs. yeast

8-9 cups whole wheat flour (if you grind your own wheat, make sure its room temp-grind it the day before if you remember)

Stir water, salt, oil and honey together. Add 4 cups flour and yeast. Beat 5 minutes (with hand mixer if you don't have a bread mixer. FYI if you do, it will be messy the first couple times until you get the hang of it).

Add 2 cups flour. mix well. add more flour til you have a soft dough and knead 10 minutes (by hand or stand mixer with dough hook if you have one).

Rise til double. Punch down. Divide into 3 small loaves or 2 large loaves. Rise til double in pans. Bake 25 minutes, 325 degrees.

TIPS: Use your senses.

Elasticity: Watch the elasticity of your dough as you beat it and as it kneads. When beating the 1st time, look for the bands beginning to form as it beats. If you have really good elasticity, you're done. Too much and the dough gets too yeasty and final product doesn't taste as good.

Smell your dough: I rely on this to see if the beating/kneading steps are sufficient more than time. As you're beating it or kneading it, smell it. It should smell like a nice sweet dough. If it begins to smell yeasty, something is not right. You're flour may have been hot, or you're beating/kneading it too long. This will affect the taste and smell of final product and not for the good.

Taste you dough: Get used to tasting it. You don't want it to taste yeasty. If it tastes a little yeasty, stop kneading/beating and move on to the next step.