Some of my friends lose power and so have to plan ahead, but I usually have found that we are in a fortuitous location and I have the luxury of baking on storm days without worrying about losing power.
This time, I used even amounts of all purpose (white) flour, brown bread flour, Rye, Spelt, Red Fife, and Acadian flours - using organic where possible. The white flour makes the loaves rise higher and come out more fluffy. (You can use all white if you want white bread.)
Wholewheat Bread Recipe
This is what it looks like in my recipe book. The steps help me keep it together just like they did when I was a kid.
Step 1: Prepare the yeast:
Pour 1 L (4 cups) lukewarm water into a small bowl. Add 1 Tbsp sugar and stir. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp active dry yeast over top. Set aside.
Step 2: Prepare the dry ingredients:
Using the largest mixing bowl you have mix together the dry ingredients:
11 cups flour (plus 1 cup depending on which flours you use)
1/2 cup sugar (if you want you can make this sugar-free too)
1 Tbsp salt
Rub in 4 Tbsp (4 oz. / 125 mL) butter or hard marg.
Step 3: Add yeast to flour and knead:
Make a well and pour in the yeast water. Mix it up a bit with your spoon. Knead the dough until it is no longer sticky. If you use a lot of ancient grains you might have to use the 12th cup of flour, but sprinkle it in slowly as you knead. Bread with too much flour doesn't rise well. (Also bread that is too sticky doesn't rise well either.) When Dear Daughter (age 10) makes bread she likes to say it must be "as smooth as a baby's bottom".
Step 4: Let it rise:
Cover the bread dough with a lid or tea towel and put it in a safe place out of the reach of pets and cold draughts. I like to use a lid because it makes for easy clean-up and less laundry.
After the bread has risen so that it is doubled in size (2 or more hours), knead it down again and separate it into 4 even pieces. Shape these into loaves, or other shapes. Each section can make 4 - 12 buns (depending on the size), 1 large pizza or 4 individual ones, 6 - 9 cinnamon buns, etc. If you use pans, grease them well (I use cooking spray).
Let the bread / buns rise until they look like the size you want. If you leave them too long, they will rise too high and cave-in on top when you bake them. If you make pizza you can begin with the toppings right away for a thinner crust, or wait a bit for a thicker crust - your choice.
Step 6: Bake:
Once the bread has risen, preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C) and bake for approx. 35 min (25 min for buns). To test for doneness, tip a loaf out of a pan and tap the bottom; it should sound hollow.
Cool your bread on cooling racks for 2 or more hours before storing - especially if you want to store it in plastic bags.
If you are a novice to bread-making, start with 1/2 white flour and 1/2 of one other kind of flour (or all white flour) and work your way up to multiple flours. Each flour acts differently so you might have to experiment a bit.
Have fun!