This whole wheat sandwich bread will be the only whole wheat bread you will need! It is so easy, especially if you own a kitchen aid mixer!
When we started to live more simply, learning to replace store-bought items with homemade was a big goal. We used to use store-bought whole wheat sandwich bread for all kinds of meals. Now I enjoy making artisan bread like my garlic scape sourdough bread, biscuits, rolls, and all kinds of bread products!
Whole wheat sandwich bread is a basic that is handy to be able to whip up in only a few hours. This is a yeasted bread which means it is MUCH faster to make than sourdough. It uses honey instead of sugar, so I enjoy the health benefits that this brings to our family as well.
Bread for the store has all kind of preservatives that are not good for long term health. Making your own bread is a good step towards becoming a more productive self sustaining household, and improving your family’s health!
Tools You’ll Need to Make Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
- A standing mixer
- 2 loaf pans
- Tea towels
- Rolling Pin
- Bench Scraper
Ingredients You’ll Need to Make Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
- 2 1/3 cups lukewarm water
- 1/4 cup honey
- 4 Tablespoons butter, melted (plus more for greasing loaf pan)
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons yeast
- 2 1/2 teaspoons of salt
- 3 cups of whole wheat flour
- 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour, plus extra for work surface
How to Make Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
- Add the lukewarm water, honey, and yeast to the bowl of a stand mixer. Wait a few minutes to make sure the yeast is active and bubbly.
- Add 1 cup of whole wheat flour, 1 cup of white flour, melted butter, and salt to the bowl.
- With the paddle attachment mix on low speed until the ingredients are combined, then turn mixer up to medium for 3 more minutes. If you are making the bread by hand, use a bread whisk.
- Switch the paddle attachment for the dough hook.
- Mix the remaining whole wheat flour, and add enough white flour to make a kneadable dough, it should still be fairly soft.
- Knead for 5 minutes with the dough hook or by hand until smooth and elastic. If you mixed the dough by hand you may need to knead it a bit longer.
- Cover the dough with a damp tea towel, and let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes (an hour if your kitchen is cold.)
- Punch the dough down, divide it in half, and roll each half our into a rectangular shape. Starting from the short end, roll each loaf up, and place it into a greased 9×5 inch bread pan. The rolling may seem like a fussy step, but it produces a loaf with a better crumb and structure. (It also makes your loaves look prettier!)
- Generously grease the loaf pans, and place the rolled up loaf into the pans.
- Cover the loaf with a wet tea towel and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes or until doubled.
- Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, or until the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Alternatively, you can insert an instant red thermometer into the long side of the loaf…when it reads 205 degrees, the bread is done.
- Turn our onto a wire rack to cool before slicing.
Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread Tips
- Test the yeast-make sure that the yeast is active by waiting a few minutes, after combining the yeast with water and honey. If the yeast gets foamy and puffs up a bit, it is active and ready!
- Use fresh flour-If you don’t already mill your own, make sure the flour you buy is fresh and and high quality.
- Use a sharp serrated knife-The bread needs to be sliced with a serrated knife for it to turn out as nice neat slices.
- Warm up your kitchen-Make sure your kitchen isn’t too cold and drafty during the rise time. If your kitchen is cold you can carry the bowl into a warmer part of the house during the rise time.
- Roll up your dough-before placing the loaves in the loaf pan, make sure to roll up and tuck in the edges underneath. This improves the crumb texture of your loaves.
- Use non-stick loaf pans-Non stick loaf pans help release the loaves nicely.
Serving suggestions for whole wheat sandwich bread
- Toast-We like to serve toast in all kinds of ways in our house. It can even make a fun lunch to make a “toast bar” by just serving toast with different toppings like: jam, butter, avocado, eggs, cinnamon sugar, peanut butter.
- Sandwiches-whatever sandwich your family enjoys this whole wheat sandwich bread is a wonderful foundation. Some sandwiches we enjoy are nut butter and jam, egg salad, turkey, or BBQ chicken. A small batch of refrigerator pickles make a great addition to many sandwiches.
- French toast-Whole wheat sandwich bread makes surprisingly great French toast, if you don’t have a French bread. Attentively you can make French toast casserole, which is a great make ahead meal and is so much less fussy to make.
- Croutons-I have even used this whole wheat sandwich bread to make croutons.
How to make croutons from whole wheat sandwich bread
To make croutons, simply cut the bread into 1 inch by 1 inch cubes. Grease a baking sheet with butter or line with parchment paper. Drizzle the bread cubes with olive oil. Sprinkle bread with 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp pepper, and 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes or until fragrant and toasted. Top you favorite salad with homemade croutons from your very own homemade bread!
Yield: 2 Loaves
Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
This whole wheat sandwich bread will be the only whole wheat bread you will need! It is so easy, especially if you own a kitchen aid mixer!
Ingredients
- 2 1/3 cups lukewarm water
- 1/4 cup honey
- 4 Tablespoons butter, melted (plus more for greasing loaf pan)
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons yeast
- 2 1/2 teaspoons of salt
- 3 cups of whole wheat flour
- 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour, plus extra for work surface
Instructions
- Add the lukewarm water, honey, and yeast to the bowl of a stand mixer. Wait a few minutes to make sure the yeast is active and bubbly.
- Add 1 cup of whole wheat flour, 1 cup of white flour, melted butter, and salt to the bowl.
- With the paddle attachment mix on low speed until the ingredients are combined, then turn mixer up to medium for 3 more minutes. If you are making the bread by hand, use a bread whisk.
- Switch the paddle attachment for the dough hook.
- Mix the remaining whole wheat flour, and add enough white flour to make a kneadable dough, it should still be fairly soft.
- Knead for 5 minutes with the dough hook or by hand until smooth and elastic. If you mixed the dough by hand you may need to knead it a bit longer.
- Cover the dough with a damp tea towel, and let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes (an hour if your kitchen is cold.)
- Punch the dough down, divide it in half, and roll each half our into a rectangular shape. Starting from the short end, roll each loaf up, and place it into a greased 9x5 inch bread pan. The rolling may seem like a fussy step, but it produces a loaf with a better crumb and structure. (It also makes your loaves look prettier!)
- Generously grease the loaf pans, and place the rolled up loaf into the pans.
- Cover the loaf with a wet tea towel and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes or until doubled.
- Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, or until the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Alternatively, you can insert an instant red thermometer into the long side of the loaf...when it reads 205 degrees, the bread is done.
- Turn our onto a wire rack to cool before slicing.
Notes
You May Also Be Interested in:
Flaky Cheddar Garlic Scape Biscuits
Pin it For Later!
Leave a Reply