I love baking bread. In the past year or so, it’s become one of my favorite things. It tastes so much better than what you can buy in the store, and it’s less expensive than really good bakery bread. This Honey Bran Whole Wheat is really yummy. Makes excellent sandwich bag.
If you need to save your extra loaves for later, these freeze really well. I wrap them in saran wrap and then foil before putting in a freezer bag.
Honey Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
The original recipe is a little different.
Makes three loaves
4 cups / 1 lb-4 oz / 568 g all-purpose flour
2 cups / 10 1/4 oz / 290 g bread flour
2 cup / 8 oz / 231 g wheat germ
1 1/2 Tablespoons / 1/8 oz / 17 g instant yeast
2 Tablespoons / 30 ml canola oil or melted butter
1/3 cup / 3-5/8 oz / 102 g honey
5 cups / 40 fluid oz lukewarm milk (about 85°F)
4 cups / 1lb-5 oz / 604 g whole wheat flour
2 Tablespoons / 30 ml salt
In a large bowl, mix all-purpose flour, bread flour, wheat germ, and yeast together. I find that a wooden spoon works best to mix dough. Then make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add canola oil, honey, and then milk. Next, you want to add the 4 cups of white whole wheat flour. Add only one at a time; otherwise, you’re going to have a hard time mixing it.
On your baking mat, knead the dough for 5 to 7 minutes. I found this dough to be very sticky. You will need more flour. But in general, due to the whole wheat and honey, it’s a little more sticky in general.
Form the dough into a ball and place the bowl over it for 20 minutes. This is called autolyse.
Next you’ll be adding the salt. Flatten the dough out and pour half the salt over it. Knead for a bit and then add the rest of the salt for 5 to 7 minutes.
Then you’ll want to dough to rise. I put mine back in the bowl, cover it with a damp, warm tea towel, and put it in a warm place. It’ll need to rise for about 1 hour. When it’s done, it’ll be 70°F-78°F in temperature and when you poke it with one finger, it should spring back at you.
Divide the dough into three parts. Shape each loaf. The easiest way to do that is to make it into a rectangle; fold it into the middle; roll the ends onto one another; turn 90° and fold over the ends on each other again; and then roll them in on each other.
Place each loaf in a lightly oiled bread pan. Sprinkle the tops with flour and a little wheat germ. Let them rise for another hour under the damp tea towel. (Usually, I wet it again.)
I like to bake my loaves on top of my baking stone to simulate a bread baking oven. When your loaves are ready, heat your oven to 375°F. You want to cook them for 40 minutes or until their golden brown and sound hollow when you tap on the bottom of them.
Ah, I always enjoy your recipes, and I do enjoy making bread. Have taken note of this one.
Thanks. It does make really yummy bread. 🙂
May I ask about the differences between your version and the original to which you linked?Did you try hers first, didn’t like certain things, and then modified it? Or did you base your changes on instinct and what you had in the house? For example, she uses oat and wheat bran, you use wheat germ.
My sister’s version of whole wheat bread uses actual rolled oats. There are endless variations, and I’m curious as to the reasons for your variations.
Also, did you use white whole wheat as she did, or did you actually use real whole wheat?
I ended up splitting the difference (half of the whole wheat portion was whole wheat, the other half was white whole wheat).
I decided to make two loaves instead of three because I don’t have a pizza peel thingy and couldn’t figure out how I would transfer the loaves to my new baking stone, and I only have one loaf pan and one round loaf-sized cast iron pot. It turned out wonderfully!
Thank you for the delicious recipe.
@Carole — Sorry for the way late reply. I’ve been neglected this poor blog for a while.
The differences in recipe were just because I didn’t have certain things on hand for the original version. I used real whole wheat flour or that’s what the package claims anyway.
Oh, I put the loaf pans on the pizza stone. I’ve read that it heads it more like a fire stove that would be used in professional bread baking.
Glad to hear that the bread turned out great. I really need to make this recipe again, perhaps with the delicious flour I found at the farmer’s market.