You will love making this Wheat Bread Bread Machine Recipe
Guest post from Brigette Shevy
There’s nothing like homemade bread fresh from the oven! While I love baking and trying new recipes, this is my standard go-to recipe. It is healthy, super easy, and can be thrown together in less than five minutes if you use a bread machine.
I normally use all whole wheat flour (I grind my own using hard white spring wheat), but you can use any combination of white flour/ bread flour/whole wheat flour. I’ve even been known to throw in some other flours on occasion and make it multi-grain! The dough is extremely versatile and can be used for dinner bread, sandwich bread, rolls, and buns.
If you’ve never made bread before, this is a fabulous recipe to start with!
Bread Machine Whole Wheat Bread Ingredients
- 1 c. plus 1 T. warm water
- 1 T. coconut oil
- 1 T. other oil (vegetable, canola)
- 2 T. honey
- 1 t. salt
- 3 c. whole wheat flour
- 1 scant T. instant active dry yeast
Easy Whole Wheat Bread Recipe Variations and Substitutions
OIL: You may use any type of oil for this recipe, however, we highly recommend that you use coconut oil. I have made this recipe hundreds of times over the years, and the coconut oil absolutely does make a difference (especially if you are using all whole wheat flour). It makes the bread soft and light. I used to use various dough conditioners (wheat gluten, citric acid, etc), but found I didn’t need them anymore once I started using the coconut oil.
FLOUR: Store-bought whole wheat flour tends to be denser and not rise as much as freshly ground wheat flour. If you use store-bought wheat flour, I recommend doing one cup white or bread flour (or more) to two cups whole wheat for a better finished product. Another option is to add a couple of tablespoons of vital wheat gluten to the dough.
How to make this Whole Wheat Bread Machine Recipe
1. Put all ingredients in the bread machine, in the order listed, or in the order recommended by your bread machine model (I have a Zojirushi model).
2. Run the dough cycle (my bread machine has two dough cycle options, and I use the shorter one – 45min. total).
3. When the dough is finished, shape it into a loaf and place in a greased 8 ½ x 4 ½ inch pan, OR shape into rolls/buns and place them on a greased cookie sheet.
4. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 30-40 minutes.
5. While dough is rising, preheat oven to 350ºF.
6. When the oven is preheated, bake bread for 30 minutes for bread (cover bread with foil after 15 min. to prevent over-browning), or 11-13 minutes for rolls.
7. Let the bread sit for 10 minutes after coming out of the oven, then remove the bread from the pan and cool on a wire rack.
8. Store in sealed bags at room temperature, or freeze for later.
How to make this Whole Wheat Bread by hand
1. In a large bowl, stir together 1 ½ c. flour, yeast and salt.
2. In another bowl, mix water, oils and honey until coconut oil is melted.
3. Add wet ingredients to dry and beat with a hand mixer for 1-2 minutes (or knead by hand for 10 minutes).
4. Gradually stir in additional flour by hand until the dough forms a ball.
5. Turn onto a floured surface and knead for 5-10 minutes, adding additional flour as necessary.
6. Let rise in a greased bowl until double (approx. 45-60 minutes).
7. When the dough is finished, shape it into a loaf and place in a greased 8 ½ x 4 ½ inch pan, OR shape into rolls/buns and place them on a greased cookie sheet.
8. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 30-40 minutes.
9. While dough is rising, preheat oven to 350ºF.
10. When the oven is preheated, bake bread for 30 minutes for bread (cover bread with foil after 15 min. to prevent over-browning), or 11-13 minutes for rolls.
11. Let the bread sit for 10 minutes after coming out of the oven, then remove the bread from the pan and cool on a wire rack.
12. Store in sealed bags at room temperature, or freeze for later.
Tips for making the perfect Bread Machine Whole Wheat Bread
Be sure to add the ingredients in the order called for (wet ingredients first) or your dough will not mix well.
Also, give your dough plenty of time to rise so your bread will be light and fluffy!
If you like a softer crust, brush the bread with melted butter immediately after it comes out of the oven.
Storing Whole Wheat Bread
Eat as much as you can when it’s still fresh from the oven!
However, if you have leftover, store it sealed bags or food storage containers at room temperature. This bread also freezes wonderfully if you want to make a bunch at one time. You can even slice it before you freeze it, which makes it really easy to just pull out one or two slices later on.
Whole Wheat Bread in Bread Machine FAQs
Dense or heavy bread is often the result of not kneading the dough mix properly. Another cause for dense whole wheat bread is because whole wheat flour has less gluten then bread flour or even all-purpose flour, and gluten is what allows bread to be soft, fluffy, and elastic, yet still maintain a good structure. You could try adding 1 T. of Vital Wheat Gluten to your dry ingredients when you mix the dough.
Making bread from a machine is marginally cheaper than buying it, as long as you eat bread frequently enough to offset the cost of the appliance — which will cut into your bottom line for a while! That said, homemade bread has a higher nutritional value, so you can weigh those “costs” as well when deciding if making and eating homemade bread is worth it for your family.
Yes. While most breadmaching recipes call for bread flour, you should easily be able to substitute all-purpose flour for any of your favorite recipes. Or, like we’ve done here, swap in whole wheat flour!
Whole Wheat Bread in Bread Machine
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 tbsp warm water
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 tbsp instant active dry yeast
Instructions
- Put all ingredients in the bread machine, in the order listed, or in the order recommended by your bread machine model
- Run the dough cycle.
- When the dough is finished, shape it into a loaf and place in a greased 8 ½ x 4 ½ inch pan, OR shape into rolls/buns and place them on a greased cookie sheet.
- Cover and let rise in a warm place for 30-40 minutes.
- While dough is rising, preheat oven to 350ºF.
- When the oven is preheated, bake bread for 30 minutes for bread (cover bread with foil after 15 min. to prevent over-browning), or 11-13 minutes for rolls.
- Let the bread sit for 10 minutes after coming out of the oven, then remove the bread from the pan and cool on a wire rack.
- Store in sealed bags at room temperature, or freeze for later.
Notes
Nutrition
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Reader Interactions
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Michele says
Is it me, or I’m just now finding the oven temperature to bake the bread in this recipe…can someone advise please?
Meg says
Bake at 350 degrees. Hope that helps! -Meg, MSM Team
Pauline says
Is it teaspoon or tablespoon that you use?
Jordan says
The capital T is tablespoon and the lowercase t is teaspoon. I hope that clears this up for you! -Jordan, MSM Team
Londa says
I have made this bread a number of times and always turns out great! I use all coconut oil and aside from using a hand mixer at the beginning for a couple mins, I do it all by hand. Lots of kneading is always important when it comes to bread I find.
Thanks for a great recipe!
Stephanie says
So I made this with store bought flour, using the bread machine to knead and rise the dough before following the baking instructions. However, my bread didn’t even rise over the top of the loaf pan. Yours is so large and wonderful looking! Is the bread in the picture a double recipe?
Courtney says
I am new to bread making, but I so desperately want to get a recipe to be accepted by my family so we can get rid of store bought bread. I made this recipe a couple of times and although the flavor is great, the consistency (due to my errors) is dense and sticky. I used half whole wheat and half white bread flour, I used my ninja dough mixer and I needed it for a couple minutes. I baked it for 30 minutes. I think I’ll go totally white flour, but do you think I should need it longer and cook a tad longer? What am I doing wrong?
Katherine says
I just tried a slice of this and it is great! I like to get my yeast started a bit so instead of adding it dry to the dry ingredients, I mixed the oils, water and honey together, then added some to the yeast to let it start working. It worked really well and then I just added it to the dry ingredients along with the liquids. My flour was ground at home but stored in the freezer and it worked wonderfully. I didn’t have to use more than the 3 cups.
Thanks for a great recipe with so few ingredients, but with such awesome results!
Meg says
So glad you enjoyed it! -Meg, MSM Team
Nisha says
In the by hand method you have said to use 1 1/2 cup wheat flour and otherwise 3 cups ?? Please advice
Carol says
This is the recipe I use, but I use broth (any kind) instead of water, for added nutrition. I use broth in almost anything that calls for water.
Sarah says
I found the dough turned out to be really sticky. Is this typical? I’m wondering if it is because I used milled flour that was in the refrigerator versus room temperature flour.
Michele M says
Thanks for this recipe. I’m looking forward to trying it. My whole family loves your recipe for pull-apart oat rolls (I couldn’t find a place to comment on that post). They are so good, soft and fluffy!
I’ve just started grinding my own wheat and am having trouble finding information about adapting recipes. A couple of my recipes I’ve tried using fresh ground wheat have turned out much wetter than usual. Have you found that you often need to add more flour than when you use all-purpose white flour or are there other ways that you adjust your recipes?
Liz says
Looks great! Can’t wait to try it. Where do you generally buy the wheat from ?
Brigette says
I buy wheat in bulk – in a 50# bag from an Amish bulk foods store. I buy Hard White Winter Wheat, and the brand they sell is Montana Wheat. I am sure there are a lot of other places that sell this brand, and you can probably buy it online – although shipping would be pricey, I am sure.
Tina says
Thanks for this! I’m excited to try it.
If I were to make rolls, how many would it make?
Brigette says
10-12 rolls
Natalie says
This looks great. I like how it makes one loaf because a lot of recipes make 2 and that’s too much for us. Going to make this tonight!
Brigette says
Hope you like it! 🙂
Natalie says
I do like it! It turned out great for me- rose perfectly. I used 1 cup bread flour and 2 cups (freshly ground) white wheat flour. Can’t wait to eat it again for breakfast tomorrow!
Brigette says
Yay! So glad it turned out well for you. 🙂
Brigette says
Thanks so much for the link! I am gf (my family is not ;)), so I will have to check it out!
kariane says
I love things that are simple to make. Thanks for sharing! If you’re looking for a very easy to make gluten-free/grain-free bread, try this one: http://everydaymindfulliving.com/grain-free-bread/
Julie says
Thanks for posting this recipe! It was very timely since I was planning on baking bread today. I usually use Crystal’s whole wheat bread recipe and we love it! I was willing to give this one a try, though. My 12 yo daughter is the only one who noticed it was a different recipe. 🙂 She didn’t say anything negative, just asked if it was different. I tried a piece and liked it. My bread didn’t rise as high as yours, but I used store bought flour and I could have let the second rising go a bit longer, but we needed to get it in the oven. 🙂
Thanks again! Now I can change things up a bit!
Sheila says
Curious why you just can’t complete the cycle on the bread machine and let it bake in there?
Brigette says
You can (as long as you don’t double the recipe). I have owned two different bread machines, though (including my current one which is about as nice as they come) and have never been completely happy with ANY bread baked in them. My loaves turn out drier and denser when I bake them in the machine (I have tried every crust setting, taking the bread out early, etc. with no success). It’s not a big deal for me to take the dough out and bake it in the oven. You are welcome to bake it in your machine, though. For me, the same dough turns out completely different in the oven.
z.lynn says
Thank you so much for this recipe! I’ve been looking for a good one because I am so done with all the unhealthy ingredients in most store bought breads. I love knowing exactly what’s in the bread that my family loves so much!
Jennifer says
Thanks for posting this! I make much of our bread, and I, too, love coconut oil. I am so excited to try this in a bread recipe. Thank you also for offering both traditional and bread machine options—both are great to have!
Brigette says
You are welcome! Hope you enjoy. 🙂
jen keith says
definitely our favorite recipe and i only use coconut oil (i love olive oil but i accidentally used all coconut oil one day and my guys loved it). i also use this recipe to make hamburger buns, now my guys are totally spoiled and won’t touch a store bought bun. thanks for posting this recipe in the past….
Brigette says
So glad you have been able to use this recipe! You are right – it was posted on another blog previously, but since that blog is no longer available, Crystal asked me to repost it here. 🙂
Ann says
This looks so good! One question about the coconut oil – do you have to melt it before you add it to the bread machine? I’m guessing you don’t have to, but I thought I’d better check! I can’t wait to try this! I have tried several wheat bread recipes and none of them were good enough to try again.
Brigette says
No – it will melt on it’s own since the water is warm. Hope you enjoy this recipe! 🙂
Ann says
Thanks for the recipe! It turned out delicious! This will now be my go-to recipe for homemade bread!