100% Whole Wheat Bread
The Holy Grail of 100% Whole Wheat Breads?
All too often, a discussion of home made 100% whole wheat bread also includes some reference to a door stop, a shot put or an anvil. It’s challenging to make an all whole grain bread that is palatable.
This recipe from King Arthur’s Whole Grain Baking not only produces amazingly light, tender and moist bread, but is fairly simple and quick to make and has a unique flavor all its own. King Arthur calls it “the Holy Grail of 100% whole wheat breads”. I’m not sure I would go quite that far, but then this is the lightest one of its kind I’ve yet to bake, so who am I to criticize?
This recipe yields one 8 ½ x 4 ½ inch loaf.
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) orange juice
1 cup (8 ounces) lukewarm water
4 tablespoons (½ stick, 2 ounces) unsalted butter; cut into 6 pieces
3 cups (12 ounces) traditional whole wheat flour
3 tablespoons (1 ¼ ounces) sugar
Heaping ½ cup (1 ¼ ounces) dried potato flakes or 3 tablespoons (1 ¼ ounces) potato flour
¼ cup (1 ounce) nonfat dry milk
1 ¼ teaspoon salt
2 ½ teaspoons instant yeast
Note: I neglected to mention in the video that the bread pan should be lightly greased before placing the dough in it. Also, you’ll probably want to mix and knead it more than I did. For this loaf, I didn’t knead at all; I just mixed with my dough whisk. The bread was a little crumbly and should have been kneaded some to develop the elasticity of the gluten. This happens automatically during the long wet fermentation of the no-knead method, but this bread recipe needs more human intervention in the form of good old fashioned kneading. A few therapeutic minutes aught to do it.
► For another 100% whole grain bread recipe, see Rick’s Whole Wheat & Rolled Oats No Knead.
Here’s a particularly nice result from Breadtopia reader, Allan Castine:
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I couldn’t wait, I had to make it today. It’s on it’s secong rise now. Baking it at a lower temp for longer sounds like a grand idea, because I love a nice soft crust. And it’s easier to handle. Saintdennis, what temp/time would you suggest?
John,
tell me how you make it out. Remember if you want to have soft crust on the bread low temperature your oven.
Saintdennis
Much obliged, thank you for your input! I plan to make a loaf on thursday, with the addition of the wheat gluten. I love light bread, and I love whole wheat bread. So to have both at once is such a devine treat! I will be sure to post a picture when it is done. Thanx again!
John
Hi John,
answer to your question: Why you put vital wheat gluten to flour?? Some flour have very low gluten (such rye flour) that people want to increase it.If you put more of vital wheat gluten that nothing will go wrong.Some people use high gluten flour and still put there vital wheat gluten.You can use it in rye flour.
Saintdennis
I think it would help.
I have not yet tried this recipe for Whole Wheat bread, but it looks simply delightful! I have tried many other 100% Whole Wheat recipes and found that it helps TREMENDOUSLY to add a bit of vital wheat gluten. Though this recipe doesn’t seem to need it. So out of curiosity if I where to add about 1 tbsp. of vital wheat gluten, what could possibly go wrong? Could this pose a problem, or do more harm than good?
Hi Laila,
The thing about instant yeast is it does not require “activating” in water. You can mix it with the dry ingredients first. I think you might be able to do the same with the rapid rise yeast that’s commonly available in grocery stores. If you go that route, maybe use 3 tsp since it’s not quite as potent as the SAF instant yeast.
I was just wondering if it was possible to use regular yeast and not instant, and if so what changes would need to be made?
Hi Alice. Your bread is BEAUTIFUL!
Hi, First of all thanks for this recipe and for the video! I watched your video and even being a beginner I decided to try it. I didn’t have 2 ingredients: potato flour/flakes and non fat dry milk. So, I replaced dry milk and water by 1 cup of lukewarm 2% reduced fat milk and I also replaced the potato flour/flakes by a little bit more than 3/4 cup of white flour. The result of my first whole wheat bread was just great. It was not not just pretty. My husband said it was a top notch gourmet bread. I agree with him.
Thanks again.
*Click to enlarge
I like all these yummy bread recipes!!! yummy
Eric Thanks for a great website
My sister & I started making bread 2 saturdays ago with some surprising results the first loaf was 100% K A organic red ww flour it didnt rise much but tasted ok the second loaf was with 100 % locally grown organic hard red winterwheat fresh ground flour in my country living grain mill w/ light years difference over the first loaf so much so that my sister said to take the first loaf home to my chickens. we have tried adding organic rolled oatmeal
which gives a very stiff dough and a heavier crumb very chewey . the second saturday we adjusted the mill for a slightly coarser grind w/ even better results. We also tried locally grown soft red winter wheat right from a farmers grain bin w/ excellent results we put the wheat on a cookie sheet and picked out the stuff that didnt look like wheat but for $12.00 / 100# I can put up w the cleaning process. We made a loaf w/ 3 eggs instead of 1.5 cups water w/no better taste so we wont waste the eggs next time .We also tried a loaf useing 1.5 cups applesauce instead of water the bread again was heavier crumb but excellent flavor very chewey we also made one /w applesauce raisens cinnamon & nutmeg it was awesome . All w/100% whole wheat fresh ground flour. In my novice opinion if you want to take your bread to the next level spend the dough( no pun intended ) and buy a grinder and grind your own wheat before you bake your bread . If you do a side by side taste test you’ll throw rocks at anything you ate previously there’s that much difference!!!!! some of our first attempts didnt rise as much as desired it apparently has to do with the volume of the dough for the size pan you are useing instead of splitting the dough into 2 pans we put the whole batch into one pan and boy did it rise I made grilled cheese and could only put 1 slice in a 9 in skillet!!!! I never had any idea baking bread could be so much fun. The possibilities for variation are endless. The best part is that we know what went into the bread we are eating, no hidden bad stuff and that for my sister is the difference between life and death she is a 16yr ovarian cancer surviver choosing nutrition over chemo as her treatment of choice. Most women dont live 5 yrs going the chemo route .
Thanks again for a great website George
I recently tried to make a Desem starter out of Laurel’s Bread Book. It did not work too well. No rise to speak of and pretty foul smelling starter. Will you do a video of this process sometime. I would like so visual guidence.
Thanks,
Mike L.
Dear Mumbi,
I do not know which county you are live,but in USA every supermarket have nonfat dry milk.If you can not find it ask store manager or clark and they will help you fand it.Look at baking section.Try big supermarkets.
Saintdennis
I am have been inspired to make some whole wheat bread. I have most of the ingredients but could not find the nonfat dry milk at the store. Any suggestions?
Hi Eric,
I spoke with you this afternoon RE: whisk., I can take 10 pages to “Thank You” for your knowledge & generosity in sharing your wonderful bread recipes, tools, and techniques with us. This is truly a gift to all of us. I am so proud of my breads and I would like to share my pictures with you, only I don’t know how to send them to you. Can you tell me? I have a MAC if that makes a difference. I make several different varities (oil cured olive, roasted red pepper, hot pepper, proscuitto & rosemary, capocollo, pepperoni, Pepper Jack cheese, butter sauted onion, whole wheat & more) and have shared this great recipe with many friends and have recommended that they visit your website. I constantly review your web site postings and watch the videos over & over and encourage my friends to do the same. You are a great educator. I have been hard at work for 1 month studying your methods and experimenting on my own as far as tools, temps, moisture & ingredients. I am very happy with my results and so are those that I share the bread with. In fact a local Italian deli is now selling my bread and with great reviews, I get more & more orders each weekend!!!! you should be so proud. Thank you a million times over.
Angel Spaccarelli
Hi Mary,
I think agave would be great. Good idea. You could reduce it some. Not sure how much or how much it matters. Maybe 2 Tbsp?
Hi Mary here. I was wanting to know if I could replace the sugar with agave, & if I do would I need to reduce the amount of water? Also since agave is sweeter than sugar would I need less than 3 Tbsp? Thanks
I realize that is is not a no knead recipe and I did knead it with a KA. It actually came out very nice; perhaps not quite as risen as I would like, but I will try it again and not add all the flour until I see how it is mixing together. It’s surprisingly tender a excellent for sandwiches. Thanks.
Hi Criss,
This isn’t a no knead recipe.
It is more difficult to mix it all up and knead it as compared to no knead. Being in a dry climate may necessitate a little more liquid and so may require a little experimenting.
I tried this recipe and there wasn’t enough liquid to even incorporate all the flour. I’m wondering why it calls for so much less liquid than the other NKB’s and yet has the same amount of flour. In addition, it seems like the potato flakes AND the dry milk would require even more liquid. I added more water after the initial mixing and don’t know how its going to turn out, but it was difficult to make the mixture absorb the liquid. Its rising now so I don’t know the end result. I’m at a high and dry climate and don’t know if that is part of the problem.
Hi
I’d like to know if is there any multigrain recipe to bake bread?
Rick
Hi Russ,
Nothing like a timely reply. Sorry, your post escaped me. Yes, I do plan on that next. Now I just need to make the time to make the video.
Hey Eric,
Are you still planning to do a video of Peter Reinhart’s whole wheat bread recipe? I’ve been looking forward to trying that one and I always find your videos helpful.
Russ
Hi Eric, I just made a great moist, mostly-wheat experiment based on your original recipe with some tweaking of my own. The crust is really rustic crusty and the crumb is nice and tight (I was working for a sandwich loaf). Thought I’d toss the recipe out there for anyone who wanted to try it.
1.5 cups King Arthur All purpose flour
2 cups King Arthur wheat flour
3/4 tsp sea salt
1 cup water (warm 95F)
2 tbsp warm unsalted butter (warm)
2 tbsp active dry yeast
1 large egg (warm)
1/4 cup apple cider (working from your orange juice, but tis the season)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
(I added the last 2 as we eat a lot of turkey sandwiches with apple butter. I thought the cider and the cinnamon would harmonize well. It does, in my opinion. It’s just enough to smell but you can’;t really taste either)
1st rise 1:30
punch down
2nd rise 2:00 (this could be because the house temp is at 71F or it could be some of the reagents interacting in neat ways, not sure)
375 for 35 mins. Viola.
Hi Eric, thanks for the kind words. Out of 5 attempts I got one pretty decent and another passable. Wifey actually wrapped it in suran affore it had cooled. I tole her take it out and put it atop the suran for the half hour trip to her sister’s Thanksgiving dinner. Both gatherings raved about how good it tasted, so I guess I should be pleased enough. I’ll email photo of my one and only success to you. All have tasted great, just look. . .you know. . .weird.
Cheers,
Steve
Hi Steve (otrpu),
I can’t explain the migrating braid. How did your more recent attempt go?
But the bread looks to have turned out beautifully. Nice going!
I would have to experiment, but would probably start by subtracting only a small amount of flour (maybe 1/4 cup) and more importantly adding water since the oats are going to absorb a lot. Not sure how much – maybe a 1/2 cup?
New to break making and eager to try this recipe but want to incorporate some rolled oats. What would be the best way? Should I simply add 1/2 cup of rolled oats and subtract 1/2 cup of flour?
Thanks
Hi, I watched the 100% WW Bread receipe a couple three times. Yesterday’s loaf didn’t rise as high as I thought it should, and the braid ended up laying over to one side of the loaf. Today’s loaf is sittin on the stove waiting for the oven to reach temp. Today’s raised considerably higher. I’m using a Corningware pan, may be 10″ rather than 8.5″might be bigger hole than the receipe can fill. So today I added a half cup more flour and nuff water to make the dough feel right. But During the second rise the braid crashed against the side of the pan laying to one side again. Kinda tough to reposition the risin braid on the risin loaf now. I gave yesterday’s to a coworker so no idea what it tasted like. I’ll keep today’s bake cause I’m running outta bread and need sumptin to eat. Any idea why my braid migrates to one side? When this happens the uncovered loaf raises higher. Sorta looks like a rupture. Tomorrow I’ll try and post a pic of my disaster, may give you more clues. Flash don’t work on my digital camera so can only shoot during daylight.
Cheers,
otrpu
Maybe I have been looking at this thing all wrong. I have been reluctant to try a Dutch oven small enough that the loaf would contact the sides. I just assumed (who knows why?) that the baking container should be large enough that it acted like a small oven, allowing air around the sides. I have found that I need to take the loaf completely out of the Dutch oven to brown, or the sides of the loaf don’t get crisp and crunchy like the top. I think that reinforced my impression that I need a large cooking vessel. But that may be completely off base.
Hi Brenda,
For making sandwich bread like the recipe above, it probably does help a lot to have a standard sized bread pan. I think they’re about 9 x 5? Can’t be more than a few bucks.
As for a Dutch oven, I know people use all different sizes with success. The main feedback I hear from Dutch oven users is that the smaller (~4qt) sizes are nice since they help shore up the sides of the dough and forces the bread to rise up more. But the actual quality of the bread itself should be great regardless of the size.
Is it important to get the right size of bread pan? I don’t have a cloche so I was thinking of using a large dutch oven for making french bread it, but it is pretty big. Thanks for your feedback.
OOPS!
I neglected to mention that was 12 Fluid ounces of water, not 12 ounces by weight! Serious oversight when dealing with bakers.
mea culpa
Since this is a thread for 100% whole wheat bread, I thought I would post my recipe for 100% whole wheat bread machine bread. My machine is an Oster, several years old.
4 cups whole wheat flour
4 heaping tsp vital wheat gluten
3 Tbl extra-virgin olive oil
3 Tbl honey
1 1/4 tsp kosher salt
12 oz. water
2 heaping tsp active dry yeast
2 Tbl wheat germ (optional)
Follow manufacturer’s directions for order of ingredients. In my case, this means liquid ingredients, then flour, then other dry ingredients, yeast last. I always check the progress several times during the mixing and kneading cycles, to make sure the moisture is right–dough forms a ball that cleans the side of the pan during mixing. I usually have to add more water to get the dough ball to hold together.
This makes a great, tasty slicing bread, perfect for eating fresh or for morning toast.
I am experimenting now with a sourdough version. I have made one loaf, using 1 cup of WW sourdough starter, proofed right in the bread machine pan overnight, then reducing the flour to 3 cups and the water to about 7 Oz. I had to add flour during the mix. The loaf came out great, but heavier, with less rise than the yeast version. Much tastier, though.
When I get the portions right, I’ll post again.
Hey, not getting food poisoning is a big plus!
Well, it didn’t rise nearly as much as I would have liked, it’s also pretty moist. It sure looked pretty with the braids on top, and I didn’t get food poisoning from the couple slices I had last night! It certainly tastes like healthy bread.
Ok, I just tried it toasted for the first time with butter and apple jelly. Was better than just eating it plain! I think I’ll make this loaf again, but I’ll let it rise even more, or add more yeast or something. Maybe I’ll just increase the ingrediants all around by half so it’ll make a bigger loaf. I’d have to give it an 8.5/10 (toasted, w/ butter and jelly) and a 7/10 plain.
There may be some reason not to use regular milk instead of powdered that I’m not aware of, but if you subtract the same amount of water as milk you’re using, in order to help maintain the same hydration level, it doesn’t seem like it would be any big problem. For all I know, it could be an improvement.
Let us know how it turns out. Using 25% white flour should make it easier to get good results and far as rise and texture go.
I’m trying the whole wheat recipe right now. First time I’ve ever tryed to make bread! I used extra flour instead of potato flakes, and regular 2% milk instead of the dried stuff. I also used a mixture that is closer to 75% wheat flour, and 25% white flour. I’m crossing my fingers! Is it okay to substitute regular milk?
Hi Kristi. Welcome to our little bread world.
Interesting question about zero humidity effecting the amount wild yeast in the air. It does seem like it would be a tad hostile of an environment. Even so, wild yeast is in other places, like the flour you use. Some recipes for making sourdough starter call for using smashed up grapes because grape skins can have yeast on them. That what gets fermentation going in wine making. So you may be ok anyway.
Hello, from Southern California!
I just discovered homemade sourdough starter. However, I got my recipe from a popular cooking site and unfortunately, it contains yeast. Oh, well! It’s sitting in the bowl, anyways, bubbling up and I’m still going to try it – providing it doesn’t die on me!
Your site was another new discovery for me today, too. I was looking for info on what the texture of the finished starter would look/feel like. Boy! Have I learned a lot about sourdough by surfing into breadtopia! (Who would have thought?!)
What a great site! I love your super informative videos!
Next time, I’m going to try your starter with whole wheat, like in your video – and WITHOUT the yeast.
Beth’s “experiment” looks so yummy, by the way…I want to try that, eventually…
Question(s): Does extremely low humidity affect the amount of wild yeast in the air? In this part of the world, we have been suffering with ZERO humidity. Doesn’t yeast needs a humid environment to survive? Perhaps I NEED to add at least some commercial yeast, considering the environment?
Thanks for a really great site! I’ll be back again and again and again…
Hi Becky,
I would give the Almost No Knead Bread recipe a try. If you click on this link and scroll down the page a little, you’ll see “Almost No Knead Sandwich Loaf Recipe” and follow the recipe using the all white flour option.
It makes a tasty loaf bread. Great texture and smaller holes than the regular no knead recipe which is better for sandwiches.
Hi Jody. About how far into the rise (time wise) were you when it fell? If it was anywhere near the end, you could just go ahead and bake it early before it falls. I’m not sure that’s the problem, but you could try it.
Eric,
My kids have picked on me about my biscuits, saying the dogs wont even play with them
I have never had luck making bread till now, by watching your video’s, I bought the sourdough starter from you, the first loaf was a flop, But my second came out great, so thank you so much.
I do have question, you have a recipe for whole grain loaf bread, I would like to make a white bread loaf, is it made the same, just sub the grain flour for white?
If not could you give me the recipe for a white loaf bread?
Again thanx so much,
Becky…….
my wheat didnt turn out. it fell while it was riseing. what did i do wrong?
Hi Allson,
I think 1) you are using too much flour.Let’s say you should use 4 cups of flour use only 3 cups and mix well and if dough need more flour just put the 1 tablespoon at time and mix it at least 10-15 minutes. 2) Then you must have temperature in the room at least 78F. For one bread you will need 1 cup of starter or 1package of yeast or 1 tablespoon of yeast.If you use non-instant yeast you put in 1/4 cup of warm water (not more then 100 F) and let it bubble up and then put flour and water and mix it up. Remember flour and watershould be at room temparature.Then then you are fine.
Tell me if you need any help.
Lot’ s luck
Saintdennis
Whole Grain sadness!
First of all, my fiance and I LOVE this website, he finds new recipes and I make them and lots of them are fantastic, especially the almost no-knead! BUT every time I try to make whole wheat it doesn’t rise and turns into a brick and I have a few theories but I’m wondering if somebody can help me? We bought our yeast before we knew much about bread baking, and we got a HUGE thing of non-instant, so I know that this recipe calls for instant but I was hoping I could make it work just by activating the regular yeast as I normally do instead of putting it in with the dry ingredients…but that doesn’t work. The last time I made it it seemed to be doing better, it rose during the two hour proofing time, and then after I put it in the loaf pan it wouldn’t rise and it almost got flatter in the oven. Any ideas???
The recipe on this page came from King Arthur Whole Grain Baking Book.
where did the recepie of Whole white bread come from?
Hi Adair,
What kind of flour are you baking with that produces the dark, heavyish loaves? The n.k. recipes on this site use mostly white flour. If you go with mostly or all whole wheat, you’re going to end up with a much heavier bread.
There should be a bunch of challah recipes on the internet. Many bread baking books have one as well. We’re lucky to have a great local bakery that makes fantastic challah every Friday. One of these days, I’ll do a video on it.
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