Bread day - plus a bonus

Today was a lovely spring day - which somehow put me in the mood to make bread.  I had intentions of making bread regularly during the winter, when it's actually nice to use my oven more, but somehow the weekends kept getting away from me and it never happened.  So today I got out the whole wheat flour and made a couple of loaves.  I really liked the flavor of the this bread, and it cuts like a dream without falling apart.  I can't wait to have a piece of whole wheat toast before work on  Monday (if I can keep the second loaf from disappearing tomorrow!)  This recipe came from my friend Lisa's son-in-law, John.  He does a lot of baking and came up with this as his "ideal" whole wheat bread recipe.  We like it!

John's Whole Wheat Bread
2 1/4 cup hot water
2 teaspoons sugar
2 Tablespoons yeast
5 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup honey
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup canola oil

• Combine 1/2 cup hot water and 2 teaspoons sugar.  Mix until the sugar is dissolved.  Add yeast and stir until wet.  Let stand for 10 minutes in a dark place.
• Add 2 cups of flour and 1 1/2 cups warm water to the yeast mixture.  Stir vigorously for several minutes.  Cover and let stand in a warm place for 2 hours or more.
• Add the salt, honey, lemon juice, oil and remaining 1/4 cup water.  Stir in 2 more cups of flour before deciding how much more flour to add Add just enough flour to make the dough firm but somewhat sticky (It won't stick to your hands when tossing dough from hand to hand, but it will if it's in one hand too long).
• Knead the dough at least 10 minutes, until smooth.
• Let rise in greased bowl until doubled. Cover with a damp towel to prevent the dough from drying out.
• Punch the dough down to remove air bubbles.
• Divide dough in half and place in two greased bread pans.  Let rise until double.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until done.  Remove from pans and place on cooling rack.

While I was cleaning up the kitchen and waiting for my loaves to rise, I noticed that I had a couple of sorry looking bananas that needed to be made into banana bread.  But once I mushed them up to put into the banana bread batter there really wasn't enough.  Fearing that too little banana would result in dry bread I scoured the pantry for something else to add, and settled on a can of crushed pineapple.  I added some drained pineapple to the banana in the bread - and the results were great.  I would do this again ON PURPOSE.  

Finally, I realized that Easter is only a week away and I didn't have my Easter dish towel made so I sewed up the cute little guy you see in the picture by the banana/pineapple bread mini-loaf.  Forgive the "hoop" marks on there, I took the picture as soon as I got the bunny's face embroidered on.  Have a fantastic Easter!