Easy Whole Wheat Bread
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!
Recipe for Easy Whole Wheat Bread
Makes One Loaf or 10-12 rolls*
Bread Machine Instructions:
- 1 c. plus 1 T. warm water
- 1 T. coconut oil**
- 1 T. other oil (olive, canola, etc.)
- 2 T. honey
- 1 t. salt
- 3 c. whole wheat flour (or any combo of bread flour/whole wheat flour***)
- 1 scant T. instant active dry yeast
Put ingredients in bread machine in order listed (I have a Zojirushi model), or in the order recommended by your bread machine model. Run the dough cycle (my bread machine has two dough cycle options, and I use the shorter one – 45min. total). Proceed with baking instructions listed below.
Traditional By-Hand Instructions:
- 3 c. whole wheat flour (or any combo of bread flour/whole wheat flour), divided
- 1 scant T. instant active dry yeast
- 1 t. salt
- 1 c. plus 1 T. very warm water
- 1 T. coconut oil*
- 1 T. other oil (olive, canola, etc.)
- 2 T. honey
In a large bowl, stir together 1 ½ c. flour, yeast and salt. In another bowl, mix water, oils and honey until coconut oil is melted. Add wet ingredients to dry and beat with a hand mixer for 1-2 minutes. Gradually stir in additional flour by hand until the dough forms a ball. Turn onto a floured surface and knead for 5-10 minutes, adding additional flour as necessary. Let rise in a greased bowl until double (approx. 45-60 minutes).
Either Method:
When dough is finished, shape and place in a greased loaf pan (8 ½ x 4 ½ inch size), OR shape into rolls or buns and place on a greased cookie sheet. Let rise in a warm place for 30-40 minutes.
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes for bread (cover bread with foil after 15 min. to prevent overbrowning), or 11-13 minutes for rolls. Cool on a wire rack and store in sealed bags.
*If you have a 2-lb bread machine, you can make a double batch of this dough. Just be sure to bake it in the oven (not the bread machine) as the instructions state.
**While another oil can be substituted for the coconut oil, I highly recommend that you don’t! 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.
***Store-bought whole wheat flour tends to be denser and not rise as much as freshly ground wheat flour. If you are using store-bought, I would 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.
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30 Comments
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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.
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Brigette says:
No – it will melt on it’s own since the water is warm. Hope you enjoy this recipe! 🙂
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Ann says:
Thanks for the recipe! It turned out delicious! This will now be my go-to recipe for homemade bread!
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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….
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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. 🙂
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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!
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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!
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Sheila says:
Curious why you just can’t complete the cycle on the bread machine and let it bake in there?
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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.
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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!
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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/
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Thanks so much for the link! I am gf (my family is not ;)), so I will have to check it out!
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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!
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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!
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Tina says:
Thanks for this! I’m excited to try it.
If I were to make rolls, how many would it make? -
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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Nisha says:
In the by hand method you have said to use 1 1/2 cup wheat flour and otherwise 3 cups ?? Please advice
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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! -
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?
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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?
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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!
Liz 
Meg 
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