Fluffy Whole Wheat Bread

So...after a lot of talking about getting a breadmaker my loving bf bought me one as a surprise. I must say that I love it. I've used it to make both bread and pizza dough (with vegan cinnamon rolls next on the list.) Now generally speaking, a lot of people don't actually BAKE their bread in the bread maker. They use it to make the dough and then bake the bread in the oven...creating a much fluffier texture. Yeah, I didn't know that the first time I made bread and holy crap that shit was DENSE!!

WELL - I happened upon a bread recipe, which of course I had to tweak based on what I've read over the internet and what I had in my kitchen. The original recipe calls for sugar, molasses, dry milk powder, and a little less wheat gluten. I don't use regular sugar, I didn't have molasses, and well, I don't drink/use regular milk (I also read that wheat gluten makes bread fluffy...so I added a little extra for good measure.) So anyway, I planned on taking out the dough and baking it in the oven. That ended up not happening - hahaha. I guess I didn't hear the beep before it started to bake. All I smelled was fresh baking bread. I thought to myself "shit, that's gonna be a waste." Well, when I took it out I decided I would cut into it anyway to see how it turned out taste wise...and wow. It was actually REALLY light and fluffy...not something you would expect from a breadmaker. I've made it a few times now to make sure it wasn't a fluke...and since it's been great everytime I decided to post the recipe. Enjoy:

Fluffy Whole Wheat Bread

The settings for this bread was a large loaf (1.5 pounds) with a medium crust, on the whole wheat cycle.

1 1/2 c + 2T water (make sure it's the temp it needs to be for your yeast. Mine is 100º - 110º)
2 T almond milk
3 T honey
2 T canola oil
1 1/2 t salt
3 3/4 c whole wheat flour
2 T wheat gluten
3 t active yeast

1) Add first 5 ingredients to your breadmaker (water through salt)

2) Add whole wheat flour evenly to pan, then add wheat gluten. Tap pan to make sure water is covered (push flour around to all corners if you have to, you don't want any water showing). Then make a small well in the center of the flour (make sure it is shallow enough that the yeast won't touch the water.) Add yeast to the well.

3) Turn on breadmaker to the aforementioned settings, sit back, relax, and enjoy fresh baked whole wheat bread in a few short hours...okay - so maybe four hours if you go by my breadmaker.

My latest loaf

Another loaf that I made - so you could see the middle

My sister and I enjoyed this with homemade blueberry jam my mom sent me...and it was TASTY!!