What do you do when a girl friend gifts you with a bag of freshly milled whole wheat berries? You turn it into a hearty loaf of wheat bread! This recipe makes a soft but hearty loaf of bread, perfect for sandwiches, toasted with a slather of butter, great for your favorite panini’s, or use it to mop up extra gravy on the bottom of your plate. This bread is light and fluffy, not dense or heavy. Not only is it delicious but it’s one of the easiest loaves to bake up. Perfect for both beginner bread bakers and more experienced bread bakers alike.
If you don’t have a bag of freshly milled wheat berries like these to use for this recipe, any whole wheat flour you can pick up at the market will do just fine. But if you can get your hands on some freshly milled flour it will produce a much more flavorful loaf of bread.
Before you start read through this entire post and the recipe down below so you understand the entire process. The hard work is at the beginning; mixing together the ingredients and kneading the dough for a few minutes. Then comes the easy part; time and patience. Letting the dough rest, to allow it to rise, and baking the loaf. In my humble opinion though, waiting for the loaf to cool before cutting into it…that’s the hardest part of all!!!
TIP: You will be tempted to cut into that loaf as soon as it comes out of the oven, but resist the urge! Steam builds up inside as the loaf bakes and needs to dissipate after it comes out of the oven. Cutting into a hot loaf of bread produces a sticky, dense textured bread that is not appealing at all. So be patient and allow the loaf to cool for at least 30 minutes before you cut into it and you will be rewarded with a light textured, fluffy slice that’s perfect for slathering with some soft creamy butter.
Start by stirring together 1¼ cups warm water and 1 packet of yeast in a large bowl.
Use an instant read thermometer to make sure the temperature of the water is at 110° degrees. If it’s much hotter than that you risk killing the yeast.
Let the mixture sit for 5-10 minutes or until the yeast starts foaming and gets bubbly.
To the yeast mixture add, ¼ cup lightly packed brown sugar, 2 tablespoons melted butter, ¾ teaspoon salt, 1½ cups whole wheat flour and 1 cup all purpose flour.
Mix together the ingredients using a wooden spoon or dough whisk, until the dough comes together. The dough will be quite wet and sticky.
Add another cup of all purpose flour and stir to combine. Add up to a ½ cup more all purpose flour, a little at a time, if the dough feels too sticky and difficult to work with.
Lightly flour your work surface and place the dough on the prepared work surface.
Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes or until the dough feels smooth and elastic.
Use your hands to form the dough into a ball.
Lightly grease a bowl with a little vegetable oil and place the ball of dough in the greased bowl. Turn the dough ball over to coat it entirely with the oil.
Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and place it in a cold oven. Turn on the oven light and allow the dough to rise for 1 hour.
After 1 hour the dough will have nearly doubled in size.
Punch the dough down with your fist.
Turn dough out onto a floured surface and shape it into a loaf.
Grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan with a little vegetable oil.
Place the dough in the prepared loaf pan.
Cover the pan with a towel and let the loaf rise for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 375° degrees F.
Bake the loaf for 40-45 minutes or until it’s golden brown and the loaf sounds hollow when you tap it.
Remove the loaf from the hot pan and allow it to cool completely on a wire rack before slicing it. I wish you could smell it! It smells AMAZING!!! Is there any better smell than baking bread?
Thank you, thank you, thank you Ashleigh for your wonderful gift of ground wheat berries! This loaf turned out so good, you’ve got me seriously considering purchasing a mill so I can grind my own wheat in the future. I sound like the little Red Hen don’t I? “Who will help me grind the wheat?” asked the little Red Hen. “Not I,” said the Fox…LOL! I know I’m adding a mill to my Christmas wish list.
This was my first attempt at baking a loaf of bread using whole wheat flour and I wasn’t sure how it would turn out. Even though I adore a crusty loaf of French bread and I can never pass up sour dough, this whole wheat loaf may just be my personal favorite! It has a lovely nuttiness from the whole grains with just a touch of sweetness from the brown sugar and it makes this loaf utterly irresistible. I will be baking up many more whole wheat loaves in the future! DELICIOUS!!! How about you? Are you going to give this easy to make loaf a try?
Whole Wheat Bread
Equipment
- 9×5 inch loaf pan
Ingredients
- 1 pkt yeast
- 1¼ cups water, warmed to 110°
- ¼ cup brown sugar, lightly packed
- 2 tbsp butter, melted
- 1 tsp salt
- 1½ cups whole wheat flour
- 2-2½ cups all purpose flour
Instructions
- In a large bowl stir together 1¼ cups warm water and 1 packet of yeast. Use an instant read thermometer to make sure the temperature of the water is at 110° degrees. Any hotter than that and you risk killing the yeast.
- Let the mixture sit for 5-10 minutes or until the yeast starts foaming and gets bubbly.
- Add ¼ cup packed brown sugar, 2 tablespoons melted butter, 1 teaspoon salt, 1½ cups whole wheat flour and 1 cup all purpose flour.
- Mix together using a wooden spoon or dough whisk, until the dough comes together. Dough will be quite wet and sticky.
- Add another cup of all purpose flour and stir to combine. Add up to a ½ cup more all purpose flour, a little at a time if the dough is too sticky and difficult to work with.
- Lightly flour your work surface and place the dough on the prepared work surface.
- Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic.
- Use your hands to form the dough into a ball.
- Lightly grease a bowl with a little vegetable oil and place dough in the greased bowl. Turn the dough ball over to coat the entire ball of dough.
- Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and place it in a cold oven. Turn on the oven light and allow the dough to rise for 1 hour.
- After 1 hour the dough should have doubled in size. Punch the dough down and turn it out onto a floured surface.
- Shape the dough into a loaf.
- Grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan with a little vegetable oil and place the dough in the pan.
- Cover with a towel and let the loaf rise for 1 hour or until doubled.
- Preheat oven to 375° degrees F.
- Bake the loaf for 40-45 minutes or until it’s golden brown and the loaf sounds hollow when you tap it.
- Remove the loaf from the hot pan and allow it to cool completely on a wire rack before slicing it.
Did You Make This?
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Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
John 6:35
Remember…Jesus ❤️’s you!