Food Storage Friday: Learn to make bread

I've wanted to post this for a long time but couldn't do it until I actually learned to make bread myself.  I've got a bunch of hard white wheat stored (and you should too- it stores forever!)  but up until a few weeks ago it was almost completely useless to me, the best I could do with it was cook it up for cereal or make some Chili Wheat with it.  I finally found a whole wheat bread recipe that was simple enough for me!  (and I have tried and failed with several recipes)  And it's very good, even for sandwiches, but especially for toast and grilled cheese.  100% Whole wheat bread, with just a little honey and oil- try it, you will be able to do it if I can! This recipe came from The Essential Food Storage Cookbook by Tami Girsberger and Carol Peterson and it is awesome. (the whole cookbook is great too if you are looking for a good one!) The original has this doubled to make 4 loaves, but my KitchenAide can only handle 2 loaves at a time, so here's my "half" version:

Whole Wheat Bread
3 cups hot water
1/3 cup oil (olive or canola)
1/3 cup honey
1 TB Vital Wheat Gluten (look in the health food section, or by specialty flours)
1/4 cup powdered milk (optional)
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 TB yeast
1 TB salt
5 cups whole wheat flour

Mix hot water, oil, honey, Vital Wheat Gluten, powdered milk, and 3 cups flour.  At this point the batter should be lukewarm so it won't kill the yeast.  Add yeast.
Gently mix to blend and then let it sit to sponge about 10 minutes.  Add salt.
While stirring, gradually add additional flour until the dough begins to "clean" the bowl.  If the dough is sticking to the sides of the bowl, continue to add flour.  You can test for enough flour by gently touching dough with your finger.  If dough sticks to your finger, add flour and keep kneading.  When dough barely does not stick to finger, stop adding flour.
Knead on low speed for 8 minutes.  Turn dough onto an oiled surface (do not use flour).  Turn dough a coulple of times to coat with oil.  Cut dough into 2 equal pieces (you can weigh them to be sure, 32oz each)  Shape each piece into a loaf and place in a bread pan that has been sprayed with oil.  Cover and let dough rise 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours.  A good place for bread to rise is under the lights on your range.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake 26-28 minutes or until interal internal temp reaches 190 degrees F.  Remove from oven and brush tops with butter.  Let loaves sit 5-10 minutes before gently removing from pans, cool on a wire rack.

And that's it- I couldn't believe it actually worked, and that even my kids will eat it!