The Easiest Homemade Wheat Bread Ever Made (Best Wheat Bread)

Well, Pennies & Pancakes has done it again!  I SO love her blogs!  As I have mentioned in the past, I happened to be frugal and really want to get back to the basics like back in the good old days where simple and fresh food was just simply awesome! Her Best Wheat Bread happens to be one.  It's not too sweet and perfect for sandwiches, homemade jams, preserves, or even just honey/cinnamon butter will just sweeten it up.

Just out of the oven

When I decided to try this recipe out, I wanted to take a loaf over to church for Christmas gathering tonight.  It was a hit with the people there!  A whole loaf of bread was gone.  

Here is her recipe.

It makes two 9" loaves

INGREDIENTS

3 cups lukewarm water

1 1/2 tablespoons yeast

3 tablespoons honey or sugar

1/3 cup oil

2 1/2 teaspoons salt

3 cups white flour

4-6 cups whole wheat flour

DIRECTIONS

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water. Let the yeast bubble and grow for 10 minutes. (Longer is okay) Add the oil. Add the salt, white flour, and 4 cups of the wheat flour. 

Knead all ingredients for 6-8 minutes, adding additional wheat flour in small amounts as needed. The dough should be smooth, elastic, and slightly sticky, pulling away from the sides of the bowl. 

Cover, and let rise until doubled. 

Punch it down, and form into 2 loaves. Place the loaves into 2 greased 9" bread pans, cover again, and let rise until the highest point of the dough is about 1/2 inch above the level of the pan. While the loaves rise, pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

When the loaves have fully raised, bake them for 25 minutes. Remove the loaves from the pans onto a cooling rack.

My step by step photos to help you out!

This is my brick.  The reason why I call it brick is because it feels like a brick until you open it.  I like to buy this by the bulk because it's cheaper and easier to use.  I always store it in freezer so it won't become rancid.  I normally get it at Sam's Club.  It comes in three.  Yes all three are in freezer!  Better safe than sorry! You can use the packets too.  

Honey or sugar: your choice

This is what it looks like couple of minutes after adding warm water, honey and yeast.  It will bubble up.  Don't worry if you see yeast clumping up.  They will eventually get soft and bubble up.

It should look like this after 10 minutes.  Then just add oil.

White and wheat flour

dry mixture of salt and both flours

Take your time adding flour mixture.  I had my trustworthy KitchenAid speed set on 2 or 3.  

                    Slowly but surely, it's getting there.  Too wet and still sticking to the bowls.

         Almost there!  As you can see, it's getting ready to form a ball around the KitchenAid hook.

There!  See how it came together to form a ball around the hook and it's not sticking to the bowl?  it took appox. 7 to 8 min to knead before it formed.

As you can see, it will be sticky when you bring it out of the bowl to knead some more with your hands.  It                                                         will be messy but fun, though!

I like to put about 2/3 cup of wheat flour on my board before adding my dough on top of it.  You can see how it's wet and sticky.  Just knead and add a little of flour as needed from the board at a time.  I didn't use all the flour on the board.

After kneading for about 3 to 4 minutes, it should look like this, smooth and slightly sticky.  If it's sticky to your fingers, that's fine.

Put the dough in a bowl.  I used this trick since my kitchen isn't warm all the time.  I just turn on the oven to 400 degrees for one minute, then turn it off.  Cover the bowl with a dish towel or saran wrap. Put it in the oven.  It'll help to speed it up.  Pennies & Pancakes does it differently.  Whatever rocks your boat will work.

Ah!  Very photogenic!  It doubled in size in 30 minutes instead of an hour.

Once again, my absolute favorite part, punching it! it will fall after punching a hole in it.

grease your pans and divide the dough into two parts and put both of them in pans.  Let the dough rise again until it's above the pans between 30 min to an hour depending on how warm the area is.

30 minutes later, the dough has risen.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bake them for 25 minutes.  It should NOT take longer than 25 minutes.

Delish with honey/cinnamon butter!

Until next time.  I will be experimenting with just whole wheat flour.  So keep an eye for it!