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This easy homemade whole wheat bread will delight your tastebuds and likely be an instant hit with your entire family. It’s a great beginner recipe as it’s almost foolproof!

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