Homemade Wheat Bread

I baked a loaf of my own wheat bread after being inspired by a blog post on the topic at the Simple Dollar blog. It took a little bit of time, but was pretty simple. I did have to run to the store for yeast and a 50/50 white/wheat flour. It was delicious with apple butter. I can't wait to make toast in the morning.

1 packet active dry yeast
1 cup of warm water
1/4 cup of milk
5 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
5 tsp butter
3 cups (or so) of 50/50 wheat/white flour (or make your own mix with 1.5 cups of each)

Mix the yeast, a tsp of the sugar and a 1/4 cup of the water in a large bowl to proof the yeast. If it bubbles and gets foamy, you've "proven" the yeast is alive and active. Mix the rest of the water and sugar, as well as the milk, salt, and melted butter together in the bowl. Stir in 2 cups of the flour until there is no dry flour in the bowl. Then add 1/4 cup of flour at a time until the dough is slightly sticky and pulls away from the bowl edge. Sprinkle flour onto your kneading surface and knead the dough for 10 minutes (flatten it, fold it up, flatten it again, repeat). Roll it into a ball and place it in the bowl. Set it somewhere warm (on/in/near an oven set on LOW). Cover it with a towel and walk away for an hour. Come back and punch the dough down. Turn the dough onto your floured work surface. Press it out into a rectangle 1 "bread pan" wide by 1.5 "bread pans" long. Roll it up lengthwise and tuck the ends toward the seams. Spray your bread pan with non-stick spray (I use the kind with flour in the spray). Plop your dough roll in the bread pan seams down and let it rise covered with the towel in the warm spot for ANOTHER hour. Use this time to clean up your mess. Turn the oven up to 400 and pop it in there for 30-35 minutes, until golden brown. Let it cool completely on a cooling rack before slicing.