Whole Wheat Brown Bread with Bran

I tried a new bread recipe this week in my breadmaker. I combined a couple of recipes and added to them. The bread turned out really nice!

Here's the recipe:

WHOLE WHEAT BROWN BREAD WITH BRAN

1 2/3 Cup Milk
2 TB Butter
1 1/2 tsp. Salt
3 TB Molasses
2 C. White Flour
2 C. Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 - 1 C. 100% Bran Cereal
2 TB. Unprocessed Bran
2 tsp. Sugar
2 tsp. Active Dry Yeast

Measure milk and butter into 2 cup glass measure. Micro on high for 1 min 50 sec to 2 minutes.
Pour into breadmaker pan.
Add rest of ingredients in order given.
Process in breadmaker on dough cycle. This is 1 1/2 hrs on my bread machine.
Remove dough from breadmaker pan, punch down and knead 3 or 4 times on lightly floured counter. I found that I barely needed to knead this dough, it was just about perfect as it was.

Grease 2 bread pans, or one long loaf pan. Divide dough, plan in the 2 pans, or end to end in long loaf pan.
Cover with a tea towel, let rise in a warm place (usually on my stove top) until double, about 30 - 40 minutes.
Bake in preheated oven on 375 F. for about 25 - 27 minutes. Remove from pans onto tea towel, brush tops with butter, and let cool.

NOTES: I used 1/2 cup of bran cereal, but want to try 1 cup next time.
You may be able to omit the extra sugar and get the same results, but maybe try it this way first.
If you like, you can fill your breadmaker pans with hot water while you warm your milk mixture in the microwave. Helps to heat the pans, especially if the room is cold, and you won't lose the heat from your milk mixture so fast.


I would love to hear from you if you make this recipe and let me know how it turned out. Any suggestions? It does have lots of flavor. I am thinking I might try maybe 2 TB of molasses next time, but don't want to sacrifice the tenderness or moistness of this bread. Maybe sometime I will use 3 cups whole wheat and 1 cup of white and see how that turns out. I am trying to incorporate more whole wheat flour into my baking, and get away from all white flour, except when it's really necessary. You can also make this recipe using honey instead of molasses. It will probably be lighter in color, and a bit different flavor. I'm going to try that sometime. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Happy Baking!