Child Friendly Wheat Bread

I developed this recipe from my Whole Wheat Bread recipe to be more friendly toward my not-quite 1 year old. I wanted it to not include the honey or egg, and to have less sugar.

Whole Wheat Bread for Children

6 ½ cups whole wheat flour

1 ¼ T yeast

1 tsp baking powder

2 1/3 cups lukewarm water

1 T salt

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

3 T oil

2 T brown sugar

1 T molasses

1 ¼ T bottled lemon juice

Mix 3 ½ cups flour, yeast, and baking powder together in an electric mixer with dough hook attached. (On a KitchenAid, you should never exceed speed 2 when using the dough hook.) Add water all at once, and mix for one minute, scraping sides as needed. Cover with a dish towel, and let rest for 10 minutes. Add salt, applesauce, oil, brown sugar, molasses, and lemon juice, and mix for one minute. Add remaining 3 cups of flour, one cup at a time, mixing between each cup. Beat until dough comes away from the sides of the bowl (mostly), about 10 minutes. If after 11 minutes dough has not come away from the edges of the bowl, you may add additional flour, a couple of tablespoons at a time. The dough should feel a little sticky, but soft.

Preheat oven for 1 minute (at any temperature), then turn off oven. Divide dough, and, with oiled hands, place in 2 oiled 8x4 inch bread pans. (You may shape the dough if you wish, but it is not required.) Let rise in warm oven for 10-15 minutes, or until dough reaches the top of the bread pans. Do not remove bread from oven. Turn oven on to 350ºF, and bake for 30 minutes. Remove bread from pans, and cool on racks.

Note: This recipe must be made in an electric mixer. If you make it by hand, you will need to use a lot more flour, which will give you a much tougher dough.