BEST WHOLE WHEAT BREAD RECIPE
My Mom put on her apple apron, pulled out the flour containers, and kneaded homemade bread like nobody’s business. There was nothing like the smell of homemade bread straight out of the oven. I would run home from school much faster on those days when my Mom was baking homemade bread. I slathered the homemade bread with sweet cream butter and honey or berry jam. To this day it is still one of the most comforting foods that always reminds me of home.
I haven’t carried on my Mom’s tradition of weekly homemade bread because I have always said that it is way too time consuming. I still love to make it and feel a lot of satisfaction when it comes out of the oven but needed to find an easier way. Let me introduce to you the power of one hour bread!
Our good friend, Shannon Lundin, has finally shared her top secret bread recipe! She just started a brand new blog called BeeWhole where she shares her journey with healthy eating and healing. She deals with fibromyalgia and shares her story HERE. After not being able to eat gluten, she found that she could eat homemade whole wheat bread made from scratch with zero issues. It is such an amazing discovery and she is sharing her whole wheat bread recipe with all of us. I called her and asked if I could share this with my readers and she was happy to share.
After trying this bread in Texas, I couldn’t wait to follow her recipe and try it at home. I halved her best homemade one hour whole wheat bread recipe. I was in shock that it only took ONE HOUR to make two loaves of homemade bread. Amazing! It is incredible that you can make homemade bread start to finish in one hour.
This Best Homemade One Hour Whole Wheat Bread is made with such simple ingredients — whole wheat flour, warm water, yeast, honey, oil and salt. This bread is filled with all natural ingredients and no sugar! It is healthy, hearty, and delicious.
TIPS on MAKING the BEST HOMEMADE ONE HOUR WHOLE WHEAT BREAD:
- Let your YEAST PROOF. The key is to use very warm water (about 110 degrees). Adding honey to the yeast helps it proof even faster. Let the yeast proof for at least 5 minutes. Remember to always use fresh yeast. You will know the yeast is working when it starts to form a creamy foam on the surface.
- Use WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR or half white bread flour and half whole wheat flour. If you have a wheat grinder, you can grind your own wheat. If not, look for organic whole wheat flour. You can always use half white flour and half whole wheat flour if you like a lighter bread.
- Use a STAND MIXER. This bread recipe is easiest with a stand mixer such as a Bosch. I love my Bosch mixer because it makes this bread so much easier! This is a huge time saver as you knead the bread for 10-12 minutes in the mixer. It saves you from doing it yourself! If you don’t own a stand mixer, you can knead the bread dough by hand. Find my SPECIAL BOSCH PRICING HERE (just for Modern Honey readers).
- Let RISE in WARM OVEN. This expedites the rising process and cuts the time in half. Set the oven to about 200 degrees and let the bread rise for approximately 20 minutes or until double in size. Here are my favorite loaf pans.
- BAKE until GOLDEN BROWN. Heat the oven to 350 degrees and bake until golden on the outside. Remove from oven and spread butter over top of loaves to give moisture and shine.
Once you remove the hot homemade whole wheat bread from the oven, remove from pans and spread with butter and jam.
- 3 Cups Warm Water approximately 110 degrees
- 1 Tablespoon Active Dry Yeast
- 2/3 cup Honey
- 1/3 cup Oil plus a little extra for hands
- 7 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour may use half whole wheat/half white flour
- 1 Tablespoon Salt
- Butter to spread on top of bread
- Heat oven to warm about 200 degrees.
- Place warm water in large mixing bowl. Add yeast and stir. Stir in honey and let proof (start to form a creamy foam) for 5 minutes.
- Add oil, flour, and salt. Begin by adding 7 cups of flour. Start to mix using the dough hook. Add remaining 1/2 cup of flour until dough pulls away from sides of mixing bowl. Using Bosch or Kitchenaid, knead for 10 minutes at medium-high speed. If you don't own a stand mixer, you can knead by hand.
- Place a little oil on hands and shape into two bread loaves. Spray loaf pans with non-stick cooking spray. Put pans in a warm oven to let rise until double -- about 20 minutes.
- Once bread has raised, turn oven to 350 degrees. Leave bread in oven and set timer for 25 minutes.
- Check bread to see if it is golden brown. Once bread is done, remove from oven and spread butter all over warm loaves. Let cool for several minutes before removing from pan.
- Spread butter and jam or honey on warm bread.
- May freeze bread or eat within 2 days.
I can’t wait to see your pictures of your Best Homemade One Hour Whole Wheat Bread. Tag me using #modernhoney or @modern_honey on instagram. I would love to see your creations!
This is a delicious bread recipe. I have never let the bread only once, so i was skeptical to to try it. The bread rose and cooked up nicely. I added 1/2 cup of wheat bran and bran and 1/4 cup of whead germ and only used 6 cups of whole wheat flour. I used 1/3 cup of melted and cooled unsalted butter instead of oil. I think I’ll use 2 cups of buttermilk and 1 cup water instead of 3 cups of water and another 2 tbsp. of honey next time to give the bread even more flavor.
I use a bread machine to mix my dough. Can this recipe be cut in half as my machine will not mix that much dough. If so could you give me the measurements I should use. Thank you!
Can this recipe be cut in half, I do not have enough pans to make a full recipe.
I struggled to find a good bread recipe, and had enough disappointments that I almost gave up making bread altogether….but decided to try this recipe. I loved the idea of making bread in an hour, instead of the usual three. I was so happy the first time I made it. It not only made two beautiful loaves, but the texture was perfect and it was delicious. I have made this bread dozens of times and it always turns out the same…..two perfect loaves in an hour. It can’t get better than that! I have since played around with it some….added some wheat germ or oatmeal or half white flour….everything I have tried has worked. Thank you so much for this recipe.
The first time I made this it didn’t rise and did not bake well. Tried again & it looks much better but there is like an air pocket or something where it hollowed out on one side. What would have caused this? This is my first time baking bread so don’t know all the secrets. Thank you!
Dear J., I am also a novice bread baker and have turned out lots of weirdly shaped loaves too! However, I found this recipe turned out the best and since I do not have a stand mixer (poor me!) I kneaded it for 150 turns instead of the often mentioned 50. That appeared to do the trick, so if you have a stand mixer then I don’t know the answer, but if you are a hand kneader then I would suggest watching a YouTube video on bread kneading to learn some simple techniques. Good luck and don’t give up!
my bread also did not rise
the yeast doubled , everything was fine , but it never doubled in size , and did not rise or tun out after i cooked it.
I’ve been making my own bread for a while now, and today I decided that I was tired of spending half of my day mixing, kneading, rising, kneading, rising… I am so glad I found this recipe. The bread turned out so much better than bread I spent 3x the amount of time making. My family is quite pleased! Thank you!
This recipe is so simple and so good!!! It came out absolutely perfect! First time making wheat bread and I personally am very busy with other things so making it in an hour was super appealing to me 🙂 I’ve already shared the recipe with others!
Made this recipe today- no alterations from original as published. Am very happy with the results and glad to find a recipe that bakes up more quickly than a 3 hr time span! Plan on giving a loaf with a jar of our home produced honey to a friend today for her 70th birthday. Have pics not too adept with Instagram so not sure I can post them but will try. Happy Baker!
What a great recipe! The finished bread was delicious. I ended up adding considerably more flour, but then I live on the Oregon coast, plus it has been raining for days; our humidity is at 80%, so that impacts any baking.
I’m anxious to try your other recipes. Good job!
Having given up processed sugars, it was hard to find bread that i could eat til i came across your site. This is my new favorite recipe. I will say that i totally messed up my second batch and left the oil out, not wanting to just throw it away i tried it and have now removed the oil from the recipe with no noticeable impact. I enjoyed this recipe so much that i make 4 loaves a week now, 2 original as posted for sandwiches and such and 2 just for breakfast with caraway seeds and currants. Can’t wait to try some more of your recipes, Thanks!
Delicious!! I’m happy to find a wonderful wholesome wheat bread that is actually moist and tastes good! Will be making it again and again.
I just made this because unbeknownst to moi, the whole wheat bread we’ve been buying from ShopRite has high fructose corn syrup. These are lovely and quick. Two caveats: the dough was almost there by 6 minutes in the mixer – then it overheated the motor. Secondly, I had to bake mine quite a lot longer. The loaves are still warm!
Thank you very much!
I’m still baking my two loaves after about fifty minutes! Knives stuck in are less gooey but not yet done. Only my fourth attempts making bread & first with this recipe so it most likely is my fault! Anyway, they did rise, look good and hopefully after a full hour in the oven at 350°F will taste great!
Thank you for sharing this excellent foolproof recipe. I do not have a bread machine, but I closely followed your recipe. I discreetly modified it by adding minced cranberries and raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg and flax seed. I also made it more nutritious by adding crumbled almonds, walnuts, and sunflower seeds. It was my first attempt and it was amazingly successful and delicious. I could not imagine bread without milk, butter, shortening, and sugar. Thank you for sharing. I do not eat much bread but I will be using your recipe again from time to time.
Best bread I have ever eaten ! Extremely easy to make as well ! Thank you so much for the recipe !!
My son (10 yrs) and I made our very FIRST bread ever using this recipe and it turned out perfectly and it was MOUTHWATERING!!!! Thank you so much for simplifying the process for non-bakers like us.
P.S. we love to try new things and will follow your recipes more often.
I have had pretty dismal luck making bread. Most often they end up looking like something that just landed from a space ship, but this recipe turned out so great! My loaves did look a little caved in on the sides (in keeping with my tradition!) but they tasted great and since I knead by hand I think it is most likely they way I did the final shaping or perhaps I need to work on my kneading technique. I am going to try this recipe today and will be adding flax meal and butter instead of oil. I wonder also, if anyone has tried adding an egg to this recipe? Also has anyone had any luck altering this recipe to just make one loaf?
Hi Suzanne,
Love the idea of adding seeds and nuts. Do you remember what quantities you used? Did you decrease other ingredients to make room for the add ins?
Thank you,
Gail
This is quite an interesting recipe.. Thank you for sharing!. i have a couple of questions, please: First, when you say preheat oven to 200F means I will preheat the oven and leave it set to 200f and put the dough to proof inside the 200F heated oven without turning it off? And after the proofing time increase the temperature to 350F?. I have read that yeast dies at 130F,.. unless what I read is referring to internal temperature? I am confused now…
Second question would be: Should I cover the bread while it proofs in the 200f heated oven? Usually recipes call for covering dough with a damp towel, does it apply to your recipe as well? if no, can you please explain to me why or what is the effect the uncovered bread will have? A drier/harder crust, maybe? Please share a little bit of your wisdom here with me. :).
I loved the end result, but the water to flour ratio was off the scale. I ended up using almost double the amount of flour – which is fine, as now I have a ton of bread 🙂 In the end, instead of butter, I used coconut oil to smother the tops of the loaves with, very aromatic.
I found the baking time to be way off, especially using an electric oven that takes a long time to come up to temperature. Next time I will allow bread to rise outside the oven so that I can preheat it.
Thanks this is the simplest good bread recipe. I can take the dough from the mixer straight into the oven. set the start and stop timers and presto. No fuss. I don’t think it is possible to make good bread any easier.: )
Love this easy recipe! I made this for my 11-month old’s French toast in the mornings, so didn’t want to use honey. I substituted turbinado sugar (replaced using 5/6 c sugar and 1/6 c water). No mixer, so I kneaded by hand, 150 turns as someone above posted. I only have one bread pan, so after oiling the loaves, I stuck one in a ziploc bag and froze it. Both loaves turned out fine. For the frozen loaf, I thawed it in the fridge the night before, then just resumed recipe, putting it in the loaf pan, rising at 200 degrees, etc. For both loaves, the final bake at 350 degrees took more like 35 mins instead of 25.
I was amazed at making such a soft, springy and an excellent rising whole wheat bread. It was however too sweet and salty for me when I actually used less salt to begin with. I know salt does improve the protein structure, but to get a great tasting loaf I will try it without any salt and less honey next time and see if it even comes close.
Hi there, I love this recipe and have made the bread numerous times l. Today I am too lazy to venture out to the store and I am wondering if I could substitue white flour instead of the whole wheat?
Love this bread! My baking skills are not that great and this bread turns out perfect every time. Thank you so much!!!! I love homemade bread and I can finally make it because of your recipe!!
I’m fairly new to making bread, but this recipe was fast, easy and delicious. No bread machine (yet), plus I did use 1/2 & 1/2 of whole wheat flour and white flour. Will definitely be making this again. Thank you for recipe.
I’m thinking of doing a 30-60 minute autolyse and then proceeeding with the recipe and checking that the bread reaches 210 degrees at the end of baking. Anyone have any thoughts on this? My 100%WW bread loaves often are very heavy and gummy. Thanks.
Hi..I have a question. I am baking my first bread and so a dummy here. Should I preheat the oven to 200 and turn it off while letting the bread rise or should I keep it tuned on and then increase the temp after 20 mins.? Please help me. Thanks
Hi there, can anyone help.
Is this recipe in Degrees Celsius or Ferenhite?
My oven only goes up to 250 degrees celcius.
This is a Fahrenheit recipe! For celsius you will want to bake at 176 or 177.
Perfect bread. I used half honey half maple syrup. Been trying to bake whole wheat bread lately and they are dense and blah. This was awesome and next I will try subbing some oatmeal for flour and I feel it will be perfect too. I didn’t use mixer just mixed by hand.
My Kitchenaid overheated while making this – did this happen to anyone else? How can this be remedied?
I am in the middle of making this bread and the dough is VERY sticky. I don’t know if it’s because of the honey or if I don’t have enough flour. I’ve put up to 9 cups of flour and the dough still isn’t smooth and will not keep much shape. I’m afraid to let it sit and rise because it is so wet. I’ve let it run in the stand mixer for at least 15 minutes and it’s a little improved but not much. I will let it rest and see what comes up it. Hopefully it’s just the honey making this dough so sticky. Two extra cups of flour seems like a lot. I hope it doesn’t come out dry!
Thank you so much for this amazing, easy recipe.I have made this a bunch of times with the following alterations: I wanted to make it multi-grain so for the 7and 1/2 cups of flour I put in 1 cup corn meal, 1 cup oat flour, 1/2 cup ground flax plus 2 tbsp.wheat gluten. The balance of the 7 1/2 cups is half all purpose flour and half whole wheat. It seems to be a foolproof recipe even with the changes. Family loves it and so do I. Must have some in the freezer at all times. (When out of honey I mixed half and half maple syrup and molasses.)
I am a very busy working mom of two very active athletes. I try to make most of our staples and the only way I accomplish this is by making ahead on slow days and freezing. Do you know how this freezes and then cooks up after its thaw? My game plan is to make 12 batches in one day and freeze the dough so I have 3 months stored at a time!
Why not cook all the bread and freeze the loaves? I don’t know if you tried freezing the dough, but I’ve always frozen baked loaves of bread and it works out great.
Thank you so much for this super fast vbread recipe.
I tried numerous bread recipes and it didnt out as I expected not forgetting the long waiting time to proof etc..
When I saw this recipe And thought gave it a try.
I am really happy with the result.
This bread turned out great. I kneaded by hand, which is my favorite part of making bread anyway. I also used half honey and half maple syrup, the total quantity was a little less than the suggested 2/3 cup. The baking time was closer to 35 minutes as someone else also noted. Overall, beautiful bread in not too much time.
Thanks for the recipe. Some information I experienced: I just did half of the ingredients, for one loaf. I didn’t get the foam when our the yeast to proofing, and waited for than 10 minutes. Not sure if it was the honey, since I’ve done it before with sugar and it was ok.. Honey was organic but it was a bit hatd, still able to squeeze it from the bottle. Regardless, it raised, but I wait 10 more minutes, I also left it 10 minute a more, since it took about 10 minutes to go from 200C to 350C. The loaf formed nicely. A bit compact, not sure if putting a tray with weather underneath could have made it different. And sweet, is this what could be?. I used half of the recipe, 1/3 cup, and it was sweet more like a dessert. I also used whole wheat, and multigrain flour, about 60/40.
Fhis might he a dumb question, but how do you shape the dough? Did you roll it out and fold or pretty much dump it?
THIS BREAD IS AMAZING! I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO FIND AN EASY, DELICIOUS AND VERSATILE BREAD THAT WILL LAST FOR A WEEK, AND THIS IS IT! IT WORKS GREAT AS TOAST, SANDWICH BREAD, SOUP BREAD, AND JUST SNACK BREAD. I DID HAVE TO REFRIGERATE IT SO IT WOULD LAST THE ENTIRE WEEK, BUT IT HELD UP WELL FLAVOR AND TEXTURE WISE.
I just had to come on here and tell you how great this recipe turned it. We made it exactly as directed (even measured the temp of the lukewarm water at 110 degrees). It has a delicious flavor and texture. My entire family loved it. I love that is makes two loves and is dairy-free. This is going to become a weekly staple in our house! Thank you so much!
>My bread came out yummy, however it is a bit denser than i like, could i do something to make it less so? This was my first time baking bread and i have to say, the loaves look gorgeous! I’d like to try this again to see if i can get it more fluffy..
I would definitely decrease the salt amount…my bread turned out too salty tasting but other than that it was great!
First, thank you for this recipe. I was so excited to see a recipe posted that could be completed in 1 hour. I wanted bread and did not have time to mKe it. First, I did not follow recipe exactly so I will not rate the recipe. I could not use 2/3 c sweetener. I already have to much sugar in my diet and cut back when I can. I used brown sugar and added 1/4 cup. I also cut back slightly on oil using 1/4 cup. I followed the remaining directions. After 25 min the bread was not done. I baked an additional 5 min the bread was still not done. I used a thermometer to measure temperature inside and it measured 180 after 30 minutes. I back an additional 10 minutes bringing the total back time to 40 min. The bread was great! I like be that I can come home from work, make bread, have it cooled and bagged before bed.
First time I’ve ever made bread and it was DELICIOUS! Easy enough for me to make without any prior skills.
I made this bread yesterday and one of my loaves turned out great, the other not so much. I had to make the loaves separately because I don’t have two loaf pans. I made it exactly as the recipe calls for, and I have to agree with another poster that the timing is off. I took it out after the 25 minutes and it was still raw in the center. I had to put it back in for an additional 20 minutes, and still raw. The second loaf, I let it rise as recommended in the oven and then I cooked it for 40 minutes, and then an additional 10 minutes just to make sure. My good loaf was more of a medium brown than a light golden brown. I was wondering if any one has tried less honey and it has come out just as good? I would prefer to not have 2/3 cup in my bread if I could avoid it. Either way this was a really easy recipe to make as a novice bread maker and I am excited to tackle it again.
So, the first several times I made this recipe it came out perfectly, with whole wheat flour I had ground myself. At the time I was living in a very dry climate. I have since moved to Los Angeles and have experienced what many complain about, wet dough, loaves taking longer to cook, coming out either very dark or doughy in the middle. Bear in mind that bread is very sensitive to moisture from its environment. Things that have worked for me are reducing the liquid a little or using part white flour (which soaks up liquid better than whole wheat). I don’t like adding extra flour personally because it overwhelms the yeast and created a tougher dough and a denser loaf.
I was so excited to try this recipe. I’ve never cooked or baked bread before. It looked great and smelled amazing but on the inside it almost looks like there was pieces that were still uncooked. It was almost chewy in places and very very dense.
We made a new batch and I was very very cautious to make it exactly as the recipe called for, and it turned out slightly better but it was still when I cut it down the middle it seems dance again.
I wish I could upload a picture to show you what I mean. I cooked it 10 minutes longer thinking maybe it just needs extra heat or longer time so the second batch came out a little bit better.
Any suggestion?
Very good bread, thank you!
What size loaf pans did you use with this recipe? 9.25”x5.25”x2.75”, or 8”x4”, or 4”x6”? I assume not the smallest (which the original Bosch mixer manual suggested).
Thanks.
I gave up market brands a couple of years ago, so I now make EVERYTHING at home. This was my first attempt at whole wheat bread, and the results were amazing! First, my dough never did reach the stage where it wanted to pull away from the side of the bowl, so I dumped it on a floured surface and kneaded it until I could form it into loaves. Otherwise, I stuck to the recipe as written. Like a few others who commented, mine baked up with a cave on one side of each loaf. What’s with that? It’s heavy and dense, probably could have benefited from another 10 minutes in the oven. But it tastes marvelous, and I’m very happy to have this recipe in my collection now.
This bread was amazing! It made such a good sandwich bread, too. It never crumbled or fell apart when sliced. My family raved about this bread and my MIL asked for the recipe.
Perfect bread for weekly baking!