Italian Raisin Walnut Bread

Italian Whole-Wheat Bread - Adapted with slight changes for making in Bosch Universal Plus Mixer from: The Bread Bible: Beth Hensperger's 300 Favorite Recipes

If you do not have a Bosch, use the same ingredients and follow the procedure that you usually follow when making bread.

plumped raisins

dough ready to rise

dough after 30 minutes of rising

ready to eat!

Recipe

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups warm water (105 - 115 degrees F.)

3 Tb SAF instant yeast

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup honey

2 Tb molasses

1 Tb Soy Lecithin

1 Tb salt

about 6 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup raisins, plumped

2 cups of walnuts, chopped

Directions:

1.  Pour warm water, honey, olive oil, soy lethicin and yeast into the Bosch mixing bowl.

2.  Pour 3 cups of freshly ground whole wheat flour over wet ingredients. (Nutrimill Home Grain Mill is an excellent grain mill if you are interested in grinding your own grain.)

3.  Cover and mix on level 1 in the Bosch mixer for 1 minute

4.  Add salt and continue mixing on level 1

5. Add flour about 1/2 cup at a time until the dough does not stick to the sides of the bowl and looks like the right texture

6. Once the right amount of flour has been added, cover and turn the Bosch mixer to level 2 and mix for 6 minutes

7. When the 6 minutes is up, pour a small puddle of canola or olive oil on your work surface, remove the dough from the mixer and knead dough 3-4 times on the oiled surface. Add raisins and walnuts while kneading.  Do not add additional flour when kneading.

8.  Then separate the dough into three round loaves. Pound them each on the table a few times to remove air bubbles. 

9.  Allow loaves to rise for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees during this time.

10.  Once dough has risen, mark with a knife and dust with flour if desire. Bake for about 30 minutes, till golden brown and a hollow sound when you knock on the top of each loaf.