I come from a family of gardeners. Each member was born with a green thumb except for me.
My parents have created a beautiful, floral oasis in their backyard in which they work laboriously on during the spring, summer, and fall months. It’s a place where the squirrels, chipmunks, and birds are well fed, the grass is never parched, and the grand kids are always loud.
On one Thanksgiving morning, my brother enthusiastically tried to show me how I could fix up my lawn. I stuck around for five minutes and then snuck away while he continued to happily work for the next 3 hours. I was happy too—happy not to be out there raking.
My sister grows beautiful vegetables in her garden (I’m talking supermarket quality here), and uses them to create fresh, vibrant colored salads. She also teaches a dirt class to children at her local farm, she keeps compost (I don’t know what that means), and once received a large container of live worms as a Christmas present and seemed ecstatic about it. She gave me an aloe plant once because she said aloe plants are hard to kill. I killed it.
When I started to bake my own bread I began to understand the satisfaction a gardener must feel when growing and tending to their garden. Bread baking involves feeding yeast, using your hands, watching dough grow, practicing patience, and enjoying the rewards from your labor. Best of all, you’ll never have to come across a weird, earthy bug during the process. Let’s bake honey and lemon wheat bread.
I adapted this recipe from one of my favorite bread books Bread Alone. It is a robust loaf of bread with a sweet lemon taste. You begin by making a poolish. A poolish is mixture of flour, water, and a little yeast. It is left to ferment anywhere from 2 to 10 hours. This helps deepen the flavor of the bread. When the poolish is bubbly and smells of wheat it is ready to be mixed with the remaining ingredients.
Mix into the poolish flour (whole wheat and 20% bran wheat flour), more yeast, water, lemon zest, salt, and honey. Knead the dough until it becomes soft and smooth (about 20 minutes).
Form the dough into a ball, place in a oiled-bowl, cover with a damp towel, and set aside for 2 to 3 hours.
Hello, gorgeous! Okay, now punch that dough in the gut, divide it in half, form it into balls, and let rest for another hour or so.
Place the dough on a greased and floured sheet pan, slash an X on top, and bake for about 40 minutes.
Cool on a wire rack.
Slice it up, toast it, spread some salted butter and honey on top and enjoy!
- ¾ cup Spring Water
- ½ tsp. Active Dry Yeast
- ¾ cup (113 g) 20% Bran Wheat Flour (Mix together 600 grams of white flour, and 200 grams of whole wheat flour. Pour into a Tupperware container. This is your 20% bran wheat flour.)
- ½ cup (71 g) Whole Wheat Flour
- 2 and ¼ cups Spring Water
- ½ tsp. Active Dry Yeast
- 1 and ½ cups (248 g) Whole Wheat Flour
- Grated Zest of one Lemon, about 2 tsp.
- ¼ cup Honey
- 1 TBS Sea Salt
- 3 and ¼ to 4 and ¼ cups (454 g to 595 g) 20% Bran Wheat Flour
- Pour the ½ cup of whole wheat flour, and ¾ cup of the 20% bran flour into a large bowl. Stir until combined.
- Heat the water in the microwave for 15 to 20 seconds. The water temperature for the yeast is ideal at 98.6 degrees F. (lukewarm). Pour in the ½ teaspoon of yeast and set aside for 5 minutes.
- Stir the yeast mixture until the yeast has dissolved, and then pour into the large bowl containing the whole wheat flour and 20% bran flour. Stir until the mixture has thickened, and then stir 100 strokes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a dough scraper, cover it with a damp towel, and set aside for 2 hours.
- Once the poolish is bubbly on top and has a lovely wheat smell it is time to mix in the rest of the ingredients. Heat the water in the microwave for 15 to 20 seconds and then pour in the yeast. Again, the water should be lukewarm to touch (98.6 degrees F.). Set aside for 5 minutes, and then stir until the yeast has dissolved. Pour the yeast mixture into the poolish and mix it in. Add the whole wheat flour, lemon zest, and honey. Stir until combined. Finally add the salt and just enough of the 20% bran flour until the dough becomes too thick to stir.
- Dump it on a well-floured surface and knead for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and soft. Check to see if you’ve kneaded adequately by performing the “windowpane” test. Pull off a small piece of dough and gently stretch it until it is very thin, and light is able to shine through. If the dough can withstand that, and not break it is good to go.
- Form the dough into a ball. Clean out the large bowl, spray with oil, place the dough inside, and cover with a damp towel. Set aside to rise for 2 to 3 hours, or until doubled. You can also let it rise in the refrigerator overnight.
- Punch the dough right in the middle, and then gently pull the sides up and fold over onto each other. Divide the dough in two equal pieces. Form both pieces into a ball, and place on a floured baking sheet. Cover both dough balls with a damp towel, and set aside for 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Slash an X in the top of each ball. Brush with olive oil, and then bake for 15 minutes. Turn the temperature down to 400 degrees F. and bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes. The bread should turn a golden brown, and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Immediately cool on a wire rack.
- Once baked this bread can be wrapped in plastic and foil and then frozen for up to 3 months. This bread tastes delicious toasted with salted butter and honey on top. Enjoy!
- Scale (optional, but encouraged)
- Dough scraper
- Thermometer
- Baking sheet
- Large bowl
