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Pecan Whole Wheat Bread

Source of Recipe

From "The Glory of Southern Cooking" by James Villas


Recipe Introduction

"If memory serves, this is the amazing nut bread I raved about at the Nu-Wray Inn, in Burnsville, North Carolina, after visiting my country ham man (Clayton Long) over in Glendale Springs, high in the Blue Ridge Mountains. (All I have are the recipe ingredients scribbled on a piece of oily paper.) Despite the yeast and white flour, it's a sturdy, fairly heavy loaf, but the flavor is incredible. To lighten it more, I once tried using lard instead of butter. That was a mistake. This is about the only whole wheat bread I bake these days, mainly because I love it sliced thin and toasted for breakfast — usually with a fried egg on top."

List of Ingredients

â—¦ 3 cups all-purpose flour
â—¦ 3 cups whole wheat flour
â—¦ 1 cup finely chopped pecans
â—¦ â…“ cup sugar
â—¦ 4 teaspoons salt
â—¦ 2 envelopes active dry yeast
â—¦ 4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter
â—¦ 1 ½ cups water
â—¦ ¾ cup whole or 2 percent milk



Recipe

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flours, pecans, sugar, salt, and yeast and blend well. In a saucepan, heat the butter, water, and milk till hot. Stir into the dry ingredients, let stand 5 minutes, then stir with a wooden spoon to form a smooth ball of dough. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead 8 to 10 minutes. Place the dough in a well-greased bowl, turn to coat all surfaces, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm area till doubled in bulk, at least 1 hour.

Grease two 9 by 5 by 3-inch loaf pans with butter and set aside. Punch the dough down, transfer back to the work surface, cut in half, and shape each half into a loaf. Fit the loaves snugly into the prepared loaf pans, cover again, and let rise till doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400° F, then bake the loaves till hollow-sounding when thumped, about 30 minutes. Transfer to a rack and let cool.

Makes 2 loaves