The good news is that I do have a bread machine and love to make bread. The bad news is finding good quality cracked wheat. Finally, I ordered a bag from King Arthur Flour when the local markets couldn't provide it. Winco does carry it in their bulk section but it was more a coarse ground flour than cracked wheat.
I hadn't ordered from King Arthur Flour before but I'm glad I did. After making this loaf I'll be ordering my flours from them. Who knew that the flour you use would make such a difference. The bread rose so high you'd swear it wasn't made with whole wheat.
This recipe makes one large loaf. Yes, it rises very high due to the large amount of yeast so use a bread pan that holds a 2 pound loaf.
Honey Cracked Wheat Bread
1 1/2 cups of water
Put cracked wheat and water in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and continue to boil for 5 minutes. Stirring to keep wheat from boiling over and sticking to the bottom. Remove from heat and drain excess water. Let cool for at least 15 minutes.
Put ingredients into bread pan in the following order:
6 tbsp softened butter, broken into pieces
3 tbsp of honey
7/8 cup of water
1 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
cooled cracked wheat
1 1/2 tsp salt
4 tbsp of dried buttermilk powder
make a well in center of bread ingredients and add:
1 tbsp of yeast
Set bread machine for dough cycle. When done, remove dough and lightly knead into shape of pan. Put into oiled pan and let rise for at least an hour in a draft free warm place till double in size. Bake at 350ยบ for 25-30 minutes or till bread sounds hollow when tapped.
