Honey Whole Wheat Bread | Staple Recipe
This Honey Whole Wheat Bread is soft and slightly sweet with a tender crumb. It’s perfect for sandwich bread and makes delicious toast as well. With few ingredients, this may become your staple recipe.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This post may include affiliate sales links. Please see my Privacy Policy.
I adapted this recipe from the back of a bag of whole wheat flour. I simply cut the recipe in half to make one loaf, and used butter instead of oil. If you’ve never made homemade bread before, it may surprise you how few ingredients you need. This particular recipe uses only flour, butter, water, honey, yeast, and salt. I use mostly whole wheat flour with a small ratio of all-purpose or bread flour to lighten the loaf.
Although this bread can be made all the way in the bread machine, you can just use the dough cycle like I did here. You can also use a stand mixer to mix and knead the dough. I like to let my bread machine mix knead the dough, and then let it rise in the machine for the first rise. It has the perfect temperature for raising bread dough and saves cleanup.
(I adore this bread machine, by the way! It’s a Zojirushi and I’ve had it for several years but it still works like new. Amazing quality, lots of options, worth the investment. I’ve had a few other bread machines but the is the best I’ve ever used.)
After the first rise in the bread machine, you simply roll the dough out onto the counter to remove large air bubbles, then roll up and tuck the ends under and place into a greased loaf pan.
Although you can use a rolling pin, I just pat it out into an oblong shape roughly the width of the pan I’m using. The dough is slightly sticky, which means the resulting loaf will be tender and not dry at all. You will want to lightly dust the counter with flour, but don’t use too much or the dough will be tough.
Once the dough is in the pan, simply cover with a towel and let rise in a warm place. If it’s chilly, I like to use my window sill. Sometimes it gets a little too warm there though and I’ll move to the top of the stove.
After the dough has risen up over the top of the pan, about 90 more minutes or so, it’s time to bake. This is where you’ll need to tailor the instructions to fit your oven. In my oven, about 40 minutes at 375F is ideal. If the loaf starts to get too dark before the inside is fully baked, I lay a sheet of aluminum foil over the top. I like to use a digital thermometer to test the bread for doneness. The ideal internal temperature for fully baked bread is 190F.
The smell of bread baking in the oven is one of the best smells in the whole world! There’s nothing like it, and no scented candle can duplicate it.
This makes a beautiful, golden loaf of bread. It tastes slightly sweet and nutty due to the whole wheat flour. It’s not dense or chewy like some whole grain breads can be. The addition of white flour helps improve the texture while still maintaining that delicious whole wheat bread flavor.
This Honey Whole Wheat Bread works really well as a sandwich bread, but I think my favorite way to eat it is toasted with a cup of tea for breakfast.
And don’t forget the butter! Bake this bread for your family, and then leave me a comment letting me know how it turned out for you. I think even hard core white bread eaters will enjoy this bread!
Recommended Items:
Honey Whole Wheat Bread
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 1/4 cup honey
- 3 cups Whole Wheat Flour
- 1/2 cup Bread flour or all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
Instructions
- If using a bread machine: add the ingredients in the order listed. Select the “Dough” cycle. This cycle kneads the dough and allows for the first rise. Once the cycle is complete, turn out dough onto a lightly floured counter. Press into a rectangle the width of the loaf pan and then roll tightly. Tuck ends under to fit into the loaf pan. Cover and leave in a warm place to rise for 90 minutes, or until the loaf rises above the pan. Bake at 375F for 35-40 minutes, until the interior of the loaf reaches 190F, or until the loaf is golden brown and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped.
- If using a stand mixer: Add ingredients to mixing bowl and mix on low speed with a dough hook until a dough starts to come together. Knead for about 8-10 minutes. Cover and let rise about 90 minutes, or until doubled in volume. Continue with instructions above.
Nutrition
RECOMMENDED PRODUCTS: