You need just 8 simple ingredients to make this whole wheat sandwich bread. It’s soft yet hearty and oh-so-flavorful, and store-bought sandwich bread just doesn’t compare! You can use 100% whole wheat flour, or you can swap in some bread flour for a taller, fluffier loaf. See recipe Notes for freezing and overnight instructions. You can also reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
PREPARATION TIME:
Prep Time:4 hours, 30 minutes (includes sponge and rises)
Cook Time:38 minutes
Total Time:5 hours, 10 minutes
Ingredients
Sponge
1 cup (240ml) water, warmed to about 110°F (43°C)
1/3 cup (80ml) whole milk, warmed to about 110°F (43°C)
2 and 1/4 teaspoons (7g) active dry or instant yeast (1 standard packet)
Prepare the sponge: In a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, whisk the water, whole milk, and yeast together. Add the 2 cups (260g) flour and stir with a spatula or wooden spoon until a thick batter forms. Cover lightly and allow to double in size at room temperature, about 60–90 minutes. Sometimes this can take up to 2 hours. *I do not recommend a hand mixer for this dough because the dough is too thick and heavy.*
Add the remaining dough ingredients including the honey, butter, lemon juice, remaining flour, and the salt. With a dough hook attachment, or using a spatula or wooden spoon (and some arm muscle!), beat on medium speed/mix until the dough comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 3 minutes. If the dough seems too wet to a point where kneading (next step) would be impossible, beat in more flour 1 Tablespoon at a time until you have a workable dough, similar to the photos above. Dough should be soft and a little sticky, but still manageable to knead with lightly floured hands.
Knead the dough: Keep the dough in the mixer and beat for an additional 8–10 full minutes, or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 8–10 full minutes. (If you’re new to bread-baking, my How to Knead Dough video tutorial can help here.) If the dough becomes too sticky during the kneading process, add 1 more Tablespoon of flour at a time to make a soft, slightly tacky dough. Do not add more flour than you need; you do not want a dry dough. After kneading, the dough should still feel a little soft. Poke it with your finger—if it slowly bounces back, your dough is ready to rise. You can also do a “windowpane test” to see if your dough has been kneaded long enough: tear off a small (roughly golfball-size) piece of dough and gently stretch it out until it’s thin enough for light to pass through it. Hold it up to a window or light. Does light pass through the stretched dough without the dough tearing first? If so, your dough has been kneaded long enough and is ready to rise. If not, keep kneading until it passes the windowpane test.
1st rise: Lightly grease a large bowl with oil or nonstick spray. Place the dough in the bowl, turning it to coat all sides in the oil. Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise in a relatively warm environment for 1.5–2 hours or until about double in size. (For a tiny reduction in rise time, see my answer to Where Should Dough Rise? in my Baking With Yeast Guide.)
Grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan.
Shape the dough: When the dough is ready, punch it down to release the air. Lightly flour a work surface, your hands, and a rolling pin. Roll the dough out into a large rectangle, about 8×15 inches. It does not have to be perfect—in fact, it will probably be rounded on the edges. That’s ok! Roll it up into an 8-inch log and place in the prepared loaf pan.
2nd rise: Cover shaped loaf. Allow to rise until it’s about 1 inch above the top of the loaf pan, about 45–60 minutes.
Adjust oven rack to a lower position and preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). It’s best to bake the bread towards the bottom of the oven so the top doesn’t burn.
Optional oat topping: If you want to add the optional oat topping, add it right before baking the bread. With a pastry brush, brush the risen loaf with egg white, then sprinkle the oats on top.
Bake the bread: Bake for 36–40 minutes, or until golden brown on top. If you notice the top browning too quickly, loosely tent the pan with aluminum foil. (I usually add it around the 20-minute mark.) To test for doneness, if you gently tap on the loaf, it should sound hollow. For a more accurate test, the bread is done when an instant-read thermometer reads the center of the loaf as 195–200°F (90–93°C). Remove from the oven and allow bread to cool for a few minutes in the pan on a cooling rack before removing the bread from the pan and slicing. Feel free to let it cool completely before slicing, too.
Cover leftover bread tightly and store at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
Freezing Instructions: Prepare recipe through step 6. Place shaped loaf in a greased 9×5-inch loaf pan or disposable loaf pan, cover tightly, and freeze for up to 3 months. On the day you serve it, let the loaf thaw and rise for about 4–5 hours at room temperature. Bake as directed. You can also freeze the baked bread loaf. Allow the bread to cool completely, then freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature, then reheat as desired.
Overnight Instructions: Prepare the recipe through step 6. Cover the shaped loaf tightly and refrigerate for up to about 15 hours. At least 3 hours before you need the bread the next day, remove from the refrigerator, keep covered, and allow to rise on the counter for about 1–2 hours before baking. Alternatively, you can let the dough have its 1st rise in the refrigerator overnight. Prepare the dough through step 3, then cover the dough tightly and place in the refrigerator for up to 12 hours. Remove from the refrigerator and allow the dough to fully rise for 2 more hours. Continue with step 5.
Special Tools (affiliate links): Stand Mixer or Large Glass Mixing Bowl with Wooden Spoon or Silicone Spatula | 9×5-inch Loaf Pan | Rolling Pin | Pastry Brush for optional topping | Instant-Read Thermometer | Wire Cooling Rack
Milk: Low-fat or nondairy milk work here, but whole milk produces phenomenal texture and I highly recommend it.
Yeast: I usually use instant yeast. You can use active dry yeast instead, with no changes to the preparation. Rise times will be slightly longer. Reference my Baking With Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
Flour: Make sure your whole wheat flour is fresh. Check the date on the package, and don’t store it uncovered. Whole wheat flour can become rancid if stored for too long, and your bread will taste bitter. You can use all whole wheat flour in this recipe, or substitute 1 cup (130g) of bread flour for a slightly taller, fluffier loaf. You can use 1 cup of bread flour in the sponge in step 1 OR save it for the remaining dough in step 2. If using 1 cup (130g) of bread flour in step 2, you’ll also need the 1/3 cup (43g) of whole wheat flour.
Honey: Honey produced the best tasting bread. In a pinch, you can use regular granulated sugar or brown sugar. But you will miss out on that honey flavor. I have not tested other sweeteners.
Can I shape this into a round boule? No, this dough needs the structure of a loaf pan. Instead, you may like this no-knead seeded oat bread.
Doubling this recipe: For best results, I recommend making two separate batches of dough. This is a big, heavy dough and the sponge will take a very long time to rise, and so will the kneading step. It’s best to make 2 separate doughs.
Whole Wheat Rolls: I recommend my soft whole wheat dinner rolls recipe, or you can try my multigrain bread/rolls recipe instead.
Adapted from Sandwich Bread and Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls
