Easy 100% Whole-Wheat Sandwich Bread
This Easy 100% Whole-Wheat Sandwich Bread is perfect for sandwiches, toast, french toast, or just snacking! Once you make a loaf, you will be addicted to this homemade bread!
I try to buy and bake with whole grains as much as possible. We always eat whole-wheat pasta and brown rice. I often cook with quinoa, make whole-wheat pizza dough, and bake with whole-wheat flour. Whenever we buy bread at the grocery store, it’s always 100% whole-wheat. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that my favorite homemade sandwich loaf is 100% whole-wheat as well.
I recently purchased the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook, and I absolutely love it. I’ve had it less than a week, and have already made three recipes from it, including this bread, which I’ve made three times. Each of the three recipes I’ve tried have been wonderful, and I cannot wait to try more.
This Easy 100% Whole-Wheat Sandwich Bread really couldn’t be any easier to make (so far as making homemade bread is concerned). You add all (yes all!) of the ingredients to your mixing bowl at once, and let your mixer do the mixing and kneading work for you. I let my bread rise right in the mixing bowl. After the dough has risen, you gently deflate it and shape it into a loaf.
I’m including step-by-step instructions for how to make a braided-top loaf below, and it takes about 3 extra minutes to do so. If you wish, though, you can skip the braid and pop the loaf right into your bread pan. Another quick rise and the bread is ready to bake.
The flavor of this 100% whole-wheat loaf can’t be beat. Fresh and warm from the oven, it’s perfection. We enjoyed most of our first loaf with this soup for dinner. The rest made excellent grilled cheese sandwiches the next day.
As always, I highly recommend measuring your ingredients by weight. Not only will this ensure your bread comes out perfectly, but it also leaves less dishes to wash.
- 4 tbsp. (½ stick, 2 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces
- 3 cups (12 ounces) whole-wheat flour
- 3 tbsp. (1 ¼ ounces) sugar
- Heaping ½ cup (1 ¼ ounces) dried potato flakes or 3 tbsp. (1 ¼ ounces) potato flour*
- ¼ cup (1 ounce) nonfat dry milk
- 1 ¼ tsp. salt
- 2 ½ tsp. instant yeast
- 2 tbsp. (1 ounce) orange juice (can substitute water or milk**)
- 1 cup (8 ounces) lukewarm water (about 110 degrees F)
- Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Mix and knead until you have a soft, smooth dough, about 8 minutes. (Alternatively, the dough can be kneaded by hand.) Cover the bowl with a piece of plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and let dough rise until it's puffy and nearly doubled in bulk, 1 to 2 hours.
- Lightly grease an 8 ½ x 4 ½-inch loaf pan. Gently deflate the dough, and shape it into an 8-inch log. Place it in the prepared pan.
- To make a loaf with a braided top, after deflating, cut off about ⅓ of the dough. Form the large piece into an 8-inch loaf, and place it in the greased loaf pan. Divide the smaller piece of dough into three equal parts. Roll each part into an 11-inch long rope, and braid the three ropes together. Lay the braid lengthwise along the top of the loaf in the pan. (See step-by-step photos of this process below.)
- Cover the loaf with a piece of lightly greased plastic wrap and allow to rise until it's crowned about 1 ½ inches over the rim of the pan, 1 ¼ to 2 ½ hours. Near the end of the bread's rising time, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Uncover and bake the bread for about 35 minutes total, tenting it with foil after about 15 minutes to prevent the top from getting too dark. The bread is done when the center registers 190 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer. Remove from the oven and let the bread cool in the pan for just a minute or two before removing it to a wire rack. If desired, brush the top of the loaf with melted butter; this will keep the crust soft. Cool for 30 minutes before slicing.
**Note: Using orange juice helps to lessen some of the bitter flavor that can come through when using whole-wheat flour. I've used both orange juice and milk, and your bread will be delicious either way.
Source: King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking.
Here are step-by-step instructions to make a loaf with a braided top:
After deflating the dough, cut off about 1/3 of the dough. Form the large piece into an 8-inch loaf, and divide the smaller piece into three equal parts.
Place the large loaf in the greased pan and roll each of the smaller three parts into an 11-inch long rope.
Braid the three ropes together.
Lay the braid lengthwise along the top of the loaf in the pan.
Cover with a piece of lightly greased plastic wrap and let the dough rise until it’s crowned about 1 1/2 inches above the rim of the pan.
Bake, and that’s it! Now you have a beautiful, delicious loaf of bread!
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A million years ago, I used to go around and give talks about food – and I always talked specifically about bread, and what the companies do to wheat before it becomes bread. There are still people who buy wheat bread because they think it’s healthy. But I think I had an impact way back then… It makes me happy when I see people who only buy 100% whole grain products. And your bread is the prettiest bread I’ve ever seen!!!
Thanks, Mimi, for your sweet comment! I switched to whole grains many years ago and haven’t looked back. Now, I just have no desire to eat white bread. My kids eat all of the whole-wheat pastas and breads too, because it’s all they’ve ever known. I think you would love this bread!
This bread is absolutely incredible! I want to try making it!
Thank you, Jocelyn! You really should try making this. It’s easy and so yummy!
As much as I love to cook, I’ve always shied away from homemade bread! This recipe doesn’t look too difficult though! I love the braid on top- so cute 🙂 I’m intrigued by the idea of orange juice in it!
No, this bread isn’t difficult at all, especially if you have a stand mixer. You should try it! Let me know if you do! 🙂
This looks beautiful! Do you think it would work in a bread machine?
Good whole wheat bread is priceless! I love it!
I haven’t tried this in a bread machine, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. If you try it, let me know how it turns out. 🙂
I love this loaf of bread! What a great idea to do a braided top – this is so gorgeous!!
Thank you, Cate! The braid is my favorite part! Besides how easy this is to make, and how delicious it is, of course! 🙂
Gorgeous bread! I really need to try this recipe out! 🙂
Thanks, Holly! If you try it, let me know how you like it!
This bread is beautiful, Kristine! I don’t think I’ve seen a braided loaf quite like this.
Thank you, Gayle! I was so surprised at how easy it was to make the braided top. I think I’ll be making braided loaves all the time now!
This sandwich bread looks so delicious! I love the braid too. With school back in session I need to make some of this for lunches. Pinning
Thank you, Cindy! I would love to make all of our bread homemade, but for now my goal is to make half of our sandwich bread. I hope you enjoy this one!
This bread looks so good! The braid makes it look so pretty – what I nice touch! Seeing posts like this makes me really miss baking and bread making! Maybe when my kids start school in a few weeks I will have more free time for things like this. 🙂 Where did you end up finding the potato flakes? And is nonfat dry milk easy to find? Also, have you tried freezing it? I’m assuming it freezes well. I’m curious to see what other recipes you’ve tried from your new cookbook!
Thank you! You really should make this – it took me less than 10 minutes (active time) to mix it up the other day, and probably 15 minutes of total active time. Nonfat dry milk is easy to find at any grocery store – it comes in a box and it should be in the baking aisle. I wish I had searched more for the Bob’s Red Mill potato flakes at Sprouts, as I think I might have found them there. I’ll let you know if I do. Otherwise, the instant mashed potatoes do work. And, this does freeze well!
This bread is gorgeous! I’m jealous of your skills! 🙂
Thank you, Kelly! You could totally make this bread, too! 🙂
You braided the top!!! {and then called it easy} Gorgeous! I would hardly want to cut in to it, until, of course, I remembered that it was bread and I am a carboholic!! Pinned! It has been too long since I made my own bread.
I hope you find a few minutes to make a loaf soon! It’s well worth it!
Ahh I love the braid! It looks so pretty. Surprisingly enough, I actually like whole wheat breads better than white breads these days, so bring on the whole grains!
Thank you! I’m with you – whole wheat has more flavor than plain white and it’s always my choice. 🙂
This bread looks fantastic! I love the braid on top 🙂
Thank you, Ashley! The braid is my favorite part too!
This bread looks amazing! I have never actually braided a bread but can’t wait to try it!
Thank you, Manali! The braided loaf is easy and fun to make!
wow, not only does your bread look delicious but beautiful too, nice job on the added braid detail, thanks for sharing:)
Thank you, Lily! The braid is so simple to make and well worth the extra few minutes.
I have made this bread three times now and while I love the flavor I just cannot get this bread to rise well at all. The first two times I was lucky if it rose above the rim of my loaf pan and today’s version….well, like I said I really like the flavor just wish I could have a regular sized sandwich. For what it is worth, I do warm my water gently before letting my yeast bloom. I’ve even added some of the sugar to the water in hopes that the yeast would work a bit harder for me, to no avail. Any suggestions would be welcome.
Do you measure the temperature of your water with an instant-read thermometer? It should be between 110 and 115 degrees F. If the water is too hot or too cold that could be the problem. Also, make sure the yeast you are using are good. I’ve made this bread many times, and it always rises really well for me. I usually just throw all of the ingredients in my mixer bowl in the order listed in the recipe and mix. I hope you have better luck – I agree, the flavor of this bread is wonderful!
Love how you shaped this bread!! Amazing!
Thank you, Karen!