Dairy-Free Whole Grain Bread

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**This has been entered at the Ultimate Recipe Swap at Life as Mom!**

I've been working on a gluten-free version of this, too, with no success so far. Oh well! If you can eat gluten, this bread is delicious!

Ingredients:
½ c. almond milk, scalded
¼ c. coconut oil
¼ c.. raw honey
2 tsp. kosher salt
1.5 c. warm water
2.5 tsp. yeast
4 – 5 c. spelt flour (or finely ground whole wheat)

Directions: Heat milk in a pan until bubbles begin to form, then remove from heat. Add coconut oil, honey, and salt; stir and allow the mixture to cool. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, add warm water and yeast together (a small amount of honey or agave nectar will help it proof; I usually add this, no more than a tsp.). When the milk mixture is about room temperature and the yeast is puffy, add the milk to the yeast and stir.

Begin adding flour slowly, about 1 c. at a time. Once it is a thick batter, add less at a time, about ½ c. As the mixture pulls away from the bowl and begins to really stick to the spoon, use your hands to knead the bread instead. Continue to add flour in small amounts and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic and no longer sticky, about 10 min. Place the bread in a warm place to rise until doubled, about one hour.

Punch it down and knead it for just a minute, then divide it in half and shape into two loaves. Place in two greased loaf pans (I use olive oil cooking spray) and allow to rise until at least doubled, about another hour. The loaves should fill the pans and crest the top. In the last 10 min. of rising, preheat the oven to 400. Place the loaves carefully into the preheated oven (too much motion can cause them to fall; if this happens, punch them down and knead them for a min. and allow to rise again) and bake 35 – 40 min. or until golden brown.

A few notes – if you choose to use whole wheat instead of spelt, your loaf will be heavier. Add a bit more yeast (1/4 tsp.) or some lighter flour to make up for this density. Always use a finely-ground flour unless you plan to use half coarse-ground and half fine-ground. Too much coarsely-ground flour will cause a dense, sticky finished loaf. Also, if the loaf comes out a bit dense and sticky even with the proper flour, it probably was not kneaded long enough originally. Knead it until it is truly smooth and not sticky for best results. If you want to use another type of oil, you can try…the “original” recipe I started with called for butter, so I prefer to use a solid type of fat. The coconut oil flavor doesn’t come through unless there’s a significant amount of sugar, and this recipe just doesn’t have that.

Enjoy!