I have been making this whole wheat sandwich bread recipe for years…long before I started our real food adventure. I just hated the taste of the whole wheat sandwich bread I was buying from the store! So I decided to start making my own whole wheat sandwich bread! It tastes so much better and I know how to pronounce all of the ingredients in it. I originally found this recipe in a Betty Crocker recipe book, over the years I have adjusted the recipe and my family just loves it!
Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
5 C. Whole wheat flour
1/3 C. Honey
¼ C. aquafaba
1 T. salt
1 1/2 T. active dry yeast
2 ¼ C. warm water (120 to 130 degrees)
1 to 2 C. of Spelt flour
Mix warm water, 3 cups of sifted flour, honey, aquafaba, salt and yeast in bowl. Let it sit in warm place and raise for 20 minutes. Then add enough sifted flour so dough is easy to handle. Put the dough on a lightly floured surface to knead or do it like me and knead it in the bowl. It is less of a mess I have to clean up. Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic. Cover and let rise for 40 to 60 minutes.
The dough is ready when you touch the dough and the indent remains. Punch the dough down and divide into two equal balls. Roll out the dough to two 18×9 rectangles. Then you fold 9 inch sides crosswise into thirds and overlap the sides. Then roll up the dough as tight as you can, starting at the open end. Pinch the seam across the bread and then press side of dough to help seal that too and fold its end under loaf. You can now put your loaves in two grease bread pans seam side down and let rise for 40 to 45 minutes. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Place your loaves on the lowest rack so that they are in the center of the oven.
I bake my loaves for 15 minutes and when they are a light golden brown on top…I put tin foil on the top of the loaves to prevent further browning. I then bake for another 5 to 10 minutes. You may have to change the time according to your oven and how hot it bakes and what pan you are using. I use cast iron and in my oven it takes longer to cook the bottom of the loaves. You want to make sure that it is cooked all the way through and isn’t doughy. I just take a loaf out and slide it out carefully and check the bottom to see if it is lightly brown, if it is…then it is done. It smells so yummy while it is cooking. My kids love bread day because since no one will eat the end pieces after their frozen…I cut up the bread and they each get a couple of warm whole wheat sandwich bread end pieces with honey…mmmmmm it is so good.
This recipe makes 2 loaves of whole wheat sandwich bread, I double this recipe each time I make it so that I get 4 loaves. I hope you like it. If you try out this recipe please let me know what you think by commenting below. If you have a whole wheat sandwich bread recipe that you use I’d love to try it!
My whole wheat bread recipe uses olive oil instead of coconut oil. I also use part wheat and part white. Hubby would rather have store bought bread so I just make it for myself! Nancy
From my experiments there are two issues with a 100% whole wheat bread. The first is the strong taste of whole wheat versus white. You can get around that by using whole white wheat which has a milder flavor. White wheat is just a different variety that doesn’t have much of a bran color like other wheats. The other issue is gluten. The more bran that is in a bread, the less gluten there is. The gluten is what makes a bread light and fluffy. You can buy gluten to add to it. I’m gluten free now and have always thought that the tricks that gluten free breads use to make their bread rise well would work too. Though I’ve never seen a recipe that mixed the two “glues”. I’m not about to experiment now since I can’t eat gluten, but if you want to, I find the best of the fake glutens to be psyllium husks (that you can find at the drug store in the fiber supplements). Traditionally they use gums (xanthum or guar), but I hate their texture and don’t think it is good to be eating a lot of gums (lots of people have stomach issues with them), while the fiber is psyllium husks is good for you and does about the same thing. I’d try a teaspoon per loaf. I wish I could try it as I love experimenting with food.
We love making bread around here. I’ll have to try this recipe out! 🙂 Thanks for sharing at the Homestead Blog Hop!
I love homemade bread. I wish I had a bread maker, I would have fresh bread all the time. Thanks for sharing on #yuckstopshere link up.
I’ve not done a 100% whole wheat, but I do have a 100% spelt sourdough sandwich loaf that I love.
I do like to use white whole wheat for all my whole wheat breads. It has a lighter flavor so you don’t notice the higher percentage of whole wheat so much. And like Daphne suggested, I do add vital wheat gluten to many of my whole grain breads to help them lift. The lift is even more important when you mill your own flour, because the bran is usually a bit more coarse than store-bought flour. I would start with maybe 2 tbsp of gluten to start with. I do love honey in my wheat breads too.
This looks great too, I love your bread recipes. Thanks for sharing at Good Morning Mondays. Blessings
Is it possible to make this in a bread machine?
I’ve never tried it in a bread machine before. This recipe makes 2 loaves so you would need to cut it in half and just give it a try. Let me know if it works!!
I didn’t realize it made two loaves. I looked over at the machine and the top was pushed up. That was my first clue. I stopped the machine and poured the dough into a bag and placed it in the fridge last night. I’m going to try dividing the dough into two loaves, put one in back in the fridge and bake the other one. Wish me luck!
Can I use the shortening to the same affect? Also are you using store bought wheat or self ground?
The original recipe called for shortening, we changed to coconut oil because is a healthier oil. But if you want to use shortening just replace the coconut oil and it will be great, we made it that way for years. We use self ground wheat now but we used to use store bought. I hope you like the recipe as much as we do.