Recipe: Whole Wheat Bread

Now that biking season is here and I am upping carb intake now, I thought I would share this bread that I made today.

When baking with whole wheat flour, one of the tricks is to use a little more yeast and to use less flour so you don’t end up with a brick-like loaf.

I also like white whole wheat flour, as it seems to be lighter in texture.

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/4 cups milk (I used 1%)
  • 1/3 cup of honey
  • 3 tablespoons of butter
  • 3 teaspoons of yeast (which is a little over 1 packet)
  • 3-1/2 cups of white whole wheat flour
  • 1/4 cup stone ground cornmeal
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons of salt

In a microwave safe container, combine the milk, honey and butter and heat to about 110 degrees F.  Let sit for the butter to melt if it has not. Add this to the bowl of your stand mixer. Sprinkle on the yeast.  Let this sit for about 10 minutes for the yeast to bloom.  It will become foamy.

Put the paddle on your mixer and add 3 cups of the wheat flour, the cornmeal and the salt.  Mix until combined.

Switch to the dough hook on the mixer. Now set a timer for 10 minutes and let the dough hook knead the dough.  This will be a stickier dough, so don’t be too alarmed, but add the other half cup of flour slowly during this time.

After 10 minutes of kneading, pull the dough off the dough hook and shape it roughly into a ball.  It will be a little sticky.  Put this back in the mixing bowl, cover with plastic wrap and put in a warm place to rise until double.  About 2 hours.  One trick? Put it in your oven with just the oven light on and that will give enough warmth to help the dough rise if your house is cold like ours.

After the dough has risen, prep a loaf pan.  I make a parchment paper sling.  I don’t know what else to call it, but that is the best term.

I spray the loaf pan, which helps the parchment stay in place (and keep the corners of the bread from sticking).  It just makes getting the loaf out so much easier.

Poke the dough down to get rid of some of the air. Note you can see the dough is still a little sticky.

This is kind of fun, actually.  Or I have no life.  You decide.

Once the dough is deflated, shape into a loaf and drop into the prepared pan.

Cover with plastic wrap sprayed with nonstick spray (unless you want dough and wrap married for life).  Place back into warm spot for about another hour until risen.

Note:  I would let this rise a little higher than this as it does not rise much during the baking.

Preheat the oven to 350 F and bake the loaf for 40 minutes or until golden brown.

It is a heavier loaf because of being entirely whole wheat.  The loaf weighs about 2 pounds!

Cutting the loaf into 12 slices
Calories 214
Fat 3.7 g
Carbohydrate 38.2 g
Fiber 3.7 g
Protein 6.0 g


Bread machine users – just put all ingredients into your machine in the order directed and let it go.

14 thoughts on “Recipe: Whole Wheat Bread

  1. Jan

    Oh boy that looks good. I will have to bookmark it for a later date. I have cut down on my carbs for a couple of weeks.

  2. Heidi

    You aren’t alone (and you do have a life!). I LOVE the feeling of risen bread dough. I could knead it for hours and be perfectly content. Maybe we’re both a little silly!
    This is a beautiful loaf and I love what fresh-baked bread does to the smell of a house 🙂 It’s on my “must-make” list!

  3. Fran

    It looks very good!
    I’ve baked some bread with ready-made mixes in the past, I do have a bread baking machine but still the bread of my bakery is better. My bread gets old fast but it’s great to have warm bread for breakfast on Sunday. Hmmmm maybe make it again someday.

  4. Miz

    I SO need to do this with my girl.
    we are a little bread household since Im GF and lately shes been asking WHERE DOES BREAD COME FROM??

    oops 🙂

  5. Jody - Fit at 53

    I don’t have a gadget like that sooooooooooooooooo you must send me a piece!!!! Ya think it will survive the cross country trip! 😉

    BTW, when I cut my parchment paper for stuff I do, never as pretty as yours! 🙂

  6. Helen

    When I lived in Zambia, there was no bread – it’s not a staple for the native population. So, I made all our bread from rolls to hamburger buns to loaves. I put aside a day each week to make bread. Even now when I bake it brings back such great memories. The one thing for me is that I never use my kitchenaid to knead the dough because I love the hands on experience so much!

  7. Roz

    I cracked up at “unless you want the dough and wrap married for life”! Funny. Great looking loaf Lori! Thanks for sharing the technique. Have a good day.

  8. Jenn@slim-shoppin

    Your bread looks amazing! I haven’t made that kind with just whole wheat. When you say stone ground corn meal – is the cornmeal you buy in the bag the same thing – because that’s what I have at home I think.

  9. Biz

    I love all bread – and do prefer the texture and taste of white whole wheat flour for some reason too – yum! There is nothing like the smell of fresh bread, I think I even prefer it to fresh cookies! 😀

    1. Lori Post author

      Hmmmm… I like cookies best because you can eat the raw dough *and* the finished cookies!

Comments are closed.