It is no secret that I’ve been working to perfect a honey whole wheat sandwich bread recipe for months now. I was not only looking for a recipe that was reliable and tasted good of course, but that also didn’t contain any “unusual” ingredients like dried milk powder or wheat gluten.
We absolutely LOVE the honey whole-wheat loaf from Great Harvest, and if they can make it with only five simple ingredients (freshly ground whole-wheat flour, water, honey, salt & yeast) then I should be able to do it too!
So after months of experimenting, I am thrilled to finally have a homemade bread recipe to share. And while this recipe comes out just right 9 times out of 10, I’ve learned that things can’t always be “perfect” when it comes to baking bread machine recipes.
If you aren’t weighing your ingredients and instead just measuring them out like me, or if you live in a place where the humidity might change from time to time…well then, expect some occasional surprises with the outcome of your bread.
I have learned one valuable trick though (from a blog reader!), and that is to check on the bread once or twice during the kneading process to make sure the dough looks “right.” I’ve caught mine looking too wet and sticky a couple of times, so I’ve added a few sprinkles of flour to get things back on track before the baking started. That’s exactly why the picture loaf looks a little “floury.”
I also want to share that this particular recipe makes a loaf that is on the larger side, which I like because then I don’t have to replenish our bread supply every two days. This loaf also comes out with a lighter crust due to its big size, and that is a plus in my book as well.
If you have any good bread-making tips or recipes that you’d like to share please do so in the comments below!
Honey Whole-Wheat Sandwich Bread (for bread machine)
Ingredients
- 4 ¼ cups whole-wheat flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups water warm (not too hot or it will kill the yeast)
- ¼ cup honey
- 2 tablespoons olive oil or melted butter
- 2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast 1 packet, or bread machine yeast
Instructions
- Layer the dry ingredients into the bread pan, according to manufacturer's instructions (check the user manual for this).
- Make a well and place the wet ingredients on top of the dry ingredients. My particular bread machine (this one is similar) has a separate area for yeast; please consult your bread machine's instruction manual for yeast placement as this is very important!
- Select the whole wheat option on your bread machine and press start. My machine takes 5 hours to make a whole wheat sandwich loaf.
Notes
- Be sure to check your bread machine's instructions for how ingredients should be layered. This recipe goes by my machine's (the Oster ExpressBake Bread Maker is similar) preference which is dry ingredients first, then wet ingredients on top.
- This recipe has been around for a while, and I've read many comments about adapting it to bake in the oven. If you still want to use your bread machine, though, you can select the dough cycle to get the dough just right, then transfer to a bread pan and bake the bread in the oven.
Have you published this recipe using weights instead of volume measurements?
We do not have the ingredients in weights. – Nicole
I made the dough in my bread machine and tried baking in the oven since my bread machine has not been very successful baking 100% whole wheat loaves in the past. Based on the recipe linked earlier in the comments, I baked at 350 for 20 minutes; it didn’t look done so I baked for another 5+ minutes. The interior was definitely not done even after the extra minutes, so at least for me these settings were not right. I doubt it is a problem with my oven because other baked goods come out fine. I think either the temperature should be higher or the time longer. The crust ultimately looked OK, but the interior was squishy, wet, and underbaked.
Thanks for sharing. I would check the recipe link from the other food blogger to see if they had any comments that matched what you were experiencing. Since we have not tried our recipe in the oven, only found a recipe that was similar to ours, we can’t confirm that the directions work for everyone. Altitude and freshness of ingredients are always something to think about as well. – Nicole
This came out PERFECT in my bread machine! (I wish I could post a pic with this review to show you how fluffy and moist it came out… not dense, hard, or heavy at all like a lot of people have commented about.)
I followed the recipe exactly. I skimmed through the comments to find out what “size” to put in my bread machine and found it is for a 2 lb loaf, so I did that. Also I noticed around the second rise, that the dough looked a little sticky. I don’t think I had to do this, but I took a little flour in my hand and sprinkled some on top of the dough ball so that it kneaded in with the last knead.
My bread machine is the compact Cuisinart. I put it on 2 lb and did the medium crust color. I chose the “wheat’ option.
Hope this helps!!
I have the Cuisinart compact bread maker too and would love to try this recipe! Did you put dry or wet ingredients first? And how did you add yeast?
I’d like to try this recipe but my bread machine isn’t large enough to bake it in the machine. I can make the dough in it. How long would I bake it in the oven?
Hi Donna, while we haven’t made this recipe in the oven yet, this one is very similar: https://deliciouslyorganic.net/everyday-whole-wheat-bread/
– Nicole
I live in Colorado Springs at an altitude of 6035 ft. I use a Regal Kitchen Pro 1 1/2 – 2 lb loaf machine. I have had a dickens of a time getting a 100% whole wheat loaf to come out that wasn’t “cratered” on the top. After much trial and error I finally refined the recipe to get an acceptable loaf. I modified the original recipe (it does include gluten, sorry!) but perhaps it will help someone else up here in the clouds. The most glaring change was going from the original 2 tsp of yeast down to just less that 1/2 of a tsp. (not a typo 1/2 tsp)! I reduced the water by 1/4 cup, 1/4 tsp less salt, And 1/2 cup less flour, No more collapsed top.
I tried this in our Zojirushi BB-PAC20 with whole wheat flour ( King Arthur’s whole grain brand) but the it was all small dry crumbs during the kneading. I manually added more water as it was too dry. Don’t know where did I go wrong.
I would check with your machine’s manual in the troubleshooting section. – Nicole