Hello Lovelies! I hope you’re all having a wonderful week. I seem to be in a bit of an emotional storm right now, but that means it’s a good time to cook.

So what do you know about Nebraska? Do you know that they grow a lot of wheat in that state? They grow between 30 and 55 million bushels a year depending on the weather. With that knowledge, no one should be surprised that the first recipe I tried from Nebraska was for wheat bread.

If you had ever read the Michigan Mama blog, you already know that bread is not my forte. I still make my dough in the bread machine. I have zero skills when it comes to scorning the loaf and somehow deflated the loaves when I did.

On the bright side, the bread is light and actually really tasty. I like it warmed with a little bit of honey cinnamon spread for breakfast with my coffee.

Honey Wheat Bread with Walnuts and Bacon

Ingredients

• 2 tsp active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole milk slightly warmed
• 1/4 cup liquid honey
• 2 TBSP melted butter
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/4 cup bacon bits

Directions

1. Sprinkle the yeast into the warm water and set aside.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients to your bread machine, starting with the liquid ingredients and ending with the flour. Finally pour the yeast mixture into your bread machine.
3. Set the machine to dough and the. Let it mix your ingredients. When it is finished, leave the dough to rise for 2 hours or until doubled in size.
4. Once dough has doubled, on a lightly floured work surface punch dough down. Divide dough in half and shape each piece into a rectangle. Starting at the narrow end, roll into a cylinder; tightly pinching the ends as you roll, and then pinch to seal closed. Place seam side down on a baking sheet (leave lots of room between each loaf). Then, cover with plastic and let rest until doubled in size, approx. 1 hour.
5. Meanwhile preheat oven to 400˚F.
   Once the dough has doubled, make a score/slash along the top of the bread using an extremely sharp knife; slash on a diagonal.
6. Place in the middle of the oven and bake for approx. 20 minutes or until bread is golden, crisp and sounds hollow when tapped.
7. Transfer to a rack and let cool for 10 minutes before enjoying.

I created this recipe from multiple Nebraska Honey Wheat Breads I found online. The one that had bacon also had blue cheese dressing which is a no go for me.

Let me know how you like it.

Kristie