Whole-Wheat Bread

I was out of bread, and in the interest of economy decided to bake my own, instead of buying a loaf. Then, in the interest of health, I decided to bake whole-wheat instead of my usual New York Times bread. It turned out pretty well, so I'm sharing the recipe I used.

I cut the recipe in half (what am I going to do with two loaves of bread?), and used the dough hooks that came with my mixer for the first time ever to knead the dough. The mixer worked well, but I think if I hadn't cut the recipe in half, it might have burnt out the motor.

Whole-Wheat Bread
Makes 2 Loaves.
3 tablespoons sugar

3 to 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons salt

2 ¼ cups milk
2 packages active dry yeast

1/3 cup butter or margarine
4 cups whole-wheat flour

1/3 cup molasses
1. In large bowl, combine sugar, salt, yeast, 2 cups whole-wheat flour and 1 cup all-purpose flour. In a 2-quart saucepan over low heat, heat: milk, butter or margarine and molasses until very warm 120° to 130°F.). (Butter does not need to melt completely.)
2. With mixer at low speed, gradually beat liquid into dry ingredients. Increase speed to medium; beat 2 minutes, occasionally scraping bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat in l/2 cup whole-wheat flour and ½ cup all-purpose flour or enough to make a thick batter. Continue beating 2 minutes, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula.
3. With spoon, stir in 1 1/2 cups whole-wheat and additional all-purpose flour (about 1 ½ cups) to make a soft dough.
4. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.

Shape dough into ball and place in a greased large bowl, turning dough to grease top. Cover with towel; let rise in warm, draft-free place (80° to 85°F.), until doubled, about 1 hour.
5. Punch down dough; turn onto lightly floured surface; cut in half; cover with bowl; let dough halves rest 15 minutes for easier shaping. Grease two 9” by 5” loaf pans.

6. With lightly floured rolling pin, roll one dough half into a 12” by 8” rectangle. Starting at a narrow end, roll dough up tightly and pinch the edge with your fingers. Seal ends by pressing them with the sides of your hands and fold them under. Place the roll, seam side down, in loaf pan.

7. Repeat step 6 with remaining dough. Cover loaves with towel; let rise in warm place, away from draft, until loaves are doubled, about 1 hour.

8. Preheat oven to 400°F. bake loaves 30 to 35 minutes or until golden and loaves sound hollow when tapped lightly with fingers. Remove from pans immediately so bottoms don’t become soggy, and cool on wire racks. From: The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook: Revised & Expanded Edition, 1989. Page 434.