100% Whole Wheat Bread–Hearty and healthy whole wheat bread made at home. I make this bread at home almost weekly! The recipe makes 4 loaves of bread and it makes the best toast ever.
100% Whole Wheat Bread
For years my sisters have been making this recipe for whole wheat bread that they call “Melinda’s Whole Wheat Bread.” They got it from a friend of Melinda apparently. I don’t know who Melinda is but I’m sure grateful for her recipe. I put off making this whole wheat bread for the longest time because I figured what is the point of making bread when you can easily buy it at the store for $2 a loaf?
One day I decided to give it a shot and it didn’t raise. Oh yeast! Why am I so scared of you? I figured I should just give up on bread making all together. My mom asked a few questions to figure out why it didn’t raise and it turned out I had used whole wheat flour that was straight from the freezer. (I freeze my freshly ground whole wheat flour because it retains the nutrients better). I had also used yeast straight from my freezer. Problem solved. Once I used freshly ground warm whole wheat flour I was able to make the recipe with no problems.
If you have a Bosch mixer or KitchenAid mixer you’ll have no problem making this recipe. The hardest part is letting the dough raise twice. But if I’m going to be home all day I just start the bread after breakfast and it’s done for an afternoon snack. I love eating this bread with butter and honey and then later on in the week when it’s not quite as fresh I like to eat it as toast.
One thing that you may want to know is that the dough for this bread is super duper sticky! But that’s the way it’s supposed to be. I use a sturdy spatula to scrape the sticky dough out of my Bosch mixer. This bread also makes really good rolls. Here is a paired down recipe that makes just 12 dinner rolls.
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100% Whole Wheat Bread
- Prep Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours
- Yield: 4 loaves 1x
Description
My favorite whole wheat bread!
Ingredients
- 4 cups hot water (the temperature needs to be slightly hotter than what you’d bathe your baby in)
- 2/3 cup oil (I use canola or vegetable oil)
- 1/3 cup molasses
- 3/4 cup honey or 1 1/2 cups sugar (I usually use sugar because that is a lot of honey)
- 2 Tbsp salt
- 2 eggs, slightly beaten
- 1 cup instant powdered milk
- 13 cups freshly ground whole wheat flour, divided (I use hard white whole wheat flour)
- 2 Tbsp active dry yeast
Instructions
- In a Bosch mixer or KitchenAid, combine hot water, oil, molasses, honey or sugar, salt, eggs, powdered milk and 4 cups of the flour. Mix on low speed until combined.
- Add yeast and remaining 9 cups of flour all at once. Mix well. Knead in the mixer for 10 minutes. Dough will be quite sticky!
- Remove dough to a large oil bowl and turn dough to coat with oil. Cover with parchment paper or waxed paper and let rise until doubled. This will take at least one hour and longer if the room is cool.
- Oil the countertop and rolling pin. Divide dough into 4 equal parts. Roll out one part as if to make cinnamon rolls. Fold up dough and roll out again. Roll up as for cinnamon rolls, but in length of bread loaf pan; pinch seam and put in loaf pan sprayed with non stick cooking spray. Repeat for other 3 loaves.
- Cover and let rise again for 30-60 minutes (mine always takes at least 60 minutes sometimes longer).
- Heat your oven to 350 degrees F. Bake all the loaves at once (if they’ll fit in your oven). Bake for 30-45 minutes (mine usually take 30 minutes). The tops will be brown. Remove from the pans and cool completely.
Can you explain the type flours that i can use for the whole wheat bread as i don’t mill my own but use King Arthur flours. And, what size bread loaf pan do you use for 4 loaves at once. I don’t have that many of the same sizes.
Thank you
Hello, reading the recipe for whole wheat bread, why is the dough not placed in the instant pot to rise? Is there a reason, or can I use the IP for this?
Thank you
This recipe was written before I had an IP. But yes! Use the IP to proof the bread. Will be perfect.
I won’t rate this recipe as yet but…Just wanted to let you know I have a recipe that I use to make Whole Wheat Flax bread ((I like using King Arthur as it has so much more protein than other store bought flours, ((my aim is to get the All New Nutrimill Plus Grain Mill for home use and some wheat grain, but I’m not there in my budget yet, I do have the Bosch Universal Plus Mixer though)) but I never put eggs in it. I will try this as I never thought to put eggs in my dough. But my question is…What is the purpose of the eggs? I also use Sunflower oil after 3 moths of doing research from Google I read that Sunflower oil is a great oil for neutral flavor as well as having some very healthy benefits, so i have used this oil for 3 years now it is a bit more pricey but most good things are. I found my oil at Walmart in the special end in the baking isle. So anyway just though I would share this with you as you have shared so much to all of us and to ask the question about the eggs. As soon as I try this I’ll rate with the star. If it would let me send this comment without doing so but if i have to, to send this comment then I’ll rate as a 1, Thank you
Eggs make yeast breads finer and richer, help provide color, volume and also bind the ingredients together. Thanks for your cooking tips!
My pork chops always are on the dry side, whether I try the pressure or slow cooking. What am I doing wrong?
I would try bone in pork chops for a short pressure cooking time of 3-5 minutes with a npr.