Munchie Monday: Quinoa Whole Wheat Bread

Let's start out by saying that it is absolutely impossible to walk away from a fresh-out-of-the-oven slice of whole wheat bread.  Or any bread, for that matter.  This is why I do not make bread very often.  I eat one or two or three slices of it while warm.  With butter on it.  Often also with homemade jam on it.  This is not good for the waist line nor for the blood sugar.  So why would I make it, you ask.  Sometimes just because my Dear One loves it.

Last week we were having the missionaries eat supper with us.  I wanted to make the bread and have it be cooking when they walked in the door.  Why? Number 1 because there is nothing like the smell of fresh bread baking and, Number 2, I thought they would love to have some hot bread just in case the rest of the food was sub-par.

Well, instead of doing that, I made the bread the day before.  I ground the wheat in the VitaMix which worked beautifully.  I am blessed to have a Bosch mixer so I put the ingredients in that and went to town on the directions.

Our daughter shared the recipe that she had found on Mels Kitchen Cafe. I have mentioned that site before.


1 cup uncooked quinoa
2 1/4 cups water
8 cups or 40 ounces whole wheat flour
1/3 cup vital wheat gluten
1 1/2 Tablespoons instant yeast
4 teaspoons salt
2 1/4 cups milk, warmed to about 110 degrees F.
3/4 cup water, also warmed about that much
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup cooking oil of your choice but not olive oil

The first thing I did was grind about 12 cups of red winter wheat in the VitaMix, 3 cups at a time, and placed it in a large plastic container.

Next I cooked the quinoa in the Instant Pot for 1 minute on HIGH then let it reduce pressure naturally for quite a while. I tend to forget about things in the Instant Pot.  After pulling the quinoa out of the IP, I let it begin cooling while I put the dry ingredients into the Bosch bowl with the dough hook installed.

Put 40 ounces of whole wheat flour in the mixer bowl along with the vital wheat gluten, salt, and yeast.  Give it a few pulses to combine well.

In a large measuring cup combine the milk, water, honey, and oil and stir well.  Pour into the mixer bowl on top of the dry ingredients and begin mixing on low.  When more or less mixed, stop the mixer and let it sit for 15-30 minutes.  By that time the quinoa will be cool enough to add in.

To add the quinoa, turn on the mixer again and spoon in the quinoa one spoonful at a time, ESPECIALLY if it is still pretty warm. You do not want to kill the little yeastlets that are growing in your dough.  If the dough is sticking to the sides of the bowl you need to add more flour, 1/4 cup at a time.  It is ready for the real kneading when the dough cleans the side of the bowl.

When they are all added in, let dough knead for 5, 6, 7, or more minutes then take out the dough hook, push the dough down into the bowl so it is more or less even across the top, then put the covers back on.  Let it rest until double in bulk.  This will be when the dough rises up and touches the inside of the covers (in a Bosch mixer...you need to figure it out with your own mixer when double is).

Take out of bowl and put on a slightly floured board and cut into three pieces.  Shape into bread-like tubes then put into greased bread tins or un-greased silicon bread pans. (The only glitch with the silicon pans is that the loaf will look a little bit pregnant when it is cooked...). Let the dough rise for about 30 minutes. 

At this point I turned the oven on to 350 degrees F.  After about 20 minutes the oven was hot and the dough had risen an inch or more above the bread tins so I popped it into the oven to cook for 30-35 minutes.  The 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inch tins were ready after 30 minutes.  The silicon pan needed another 5 minutes.

It was good bread.

Yes.  I ate three fat slices.  Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.  But so good.

This was hard red winter wheat.  The bread would have been lighter in texture if I had used hard white winter wheat but I did not have any conveniently to hand.  I will get some soon. If I plan to make more bread.  I still imagine taking some fresh bread to our new neighbors to say hello...

And, sad to say, the loaf of bread I had set aside for the missionaries was still sitting aside when they left...so I will be making bread again for them.