Margaret Haapoja's Healthy Wheat Bread Recipe

Margaret sent us this recipe:

High-Protein Honey Wheat Bread

4-5 cups flour

2 tsp. salt

2 pkg. dry yeast

1 cup water

½ cup honey

¼ cup margarine or butter

8 oz. carton cream style cottage cheese (1 cup)

2 eggs

1 cup whole wheat flour

½ cup rolled oats (I use quick oatmeal)

1 cup chopped nuts

Grease 2 loaf pans or 2 round 8 or 9” cake pans. In large bowl combine 2 cups flour, salt and yeast and blend well. In medium saucepan, heat water, honey, margarine and cottage cheese until very warm—margarine doesn’t need to melt completely. (Sometimes I end up having to cool this mixture down so it doesn’t kill the yeast.) Add warm liquid and eggs to flour mixture. Blend at low speed until moistened; beat 3 minutes at medium speed. By hand, stir in whole wheat flour, oats and nuts plus enough white flour to form soft dough. On floured surface, knead dough about 10 minutes or until it’s smooth and elastic. Place dough in greased bowl and cover loosely. Let rise in warm place until light and doubled in size, about an hour. Punch down dough. Divide into 2 parts and mold into balls. Allow to rest on counter, covered with inverted bowl for 15 minutes. (I’ve skipped this last step, I guess!) Shape into 2 loaves and place in prepared pans. Let rise in warm place until dough is light and doubled in size, about an hour. Heat oven to 375º F. Bake for 35-40 minutes until loaves sound hollow when lightly tapped. Remove from pans immediately and cool on racks. For soft crusts, brush tops of loaves with melted butter.