The best Whole Wheat Bread recipe is light, soft, and fluffy! Made with 100% whole wheat flour and sweetened with honey, this bread vanishes instantly, it’s so good!
Making Whole Wheat Bread is easier thank you think.
Making Whole Wheat Bread is easier thank you think.This is my mom’s wheat bread recipe we’ve been making for decades and anyone can make it; it’s that easy!
I love that it only requires 1 rise (not 2, like our white bread recipe). Also, whole grain wheat bread is healthier because whole wheat flour has more vitamins, minerals, and fiber.
What really sets our wheat bread recipe apart is it’s extra soft and moist from the vital wheat gluten and Greek yogurt, which can be hard to achieve with wheat bread! I also love that this recipe makes 2 loaves so you can freeze the second, or gift it to a friend. Food gifts are the best gifts, after all :-).
For true greatness, serve each slice with a little butter and strawberry jam or raspberry jam. It also makes great wheat bread for sandwiches!
Check out all of my bread recipes like White Bread, Artisan Bread, Oatmeal Bread, Protein Banana Bread, or these easy English Muffins!
How to make Whole Wheat Bread:
Spray bread loaf pans with non-stick cooking spray and line the bottom of the pans with parchment paper.
Make Dough: In a mixing bowl or a stand mixer, stir 4.5 cups wheat flour and yeast, then add warm water and mix. Cover bowl and rest for 15 minutes. Stir in vital wheat gluten, salt, melted butter, honey, and greek yogurt and mix well. Add 1 ½ cups of flour and mix well. Add a little more flour at a time as needed, until the dough is pulling away from the sides of the bowl.
Knead: Use a stand mixer and knead dough for 5 minutes (or by hand for 10 minutes). The dough should be smooth and elastic and not overly sticky.
Shape: Divide dough into two equal pieces and form into oval loaves and place in prepared loaf pans. (I like to press each dough ball flat into a rectangle and roll it into a tight log).
Rise: Cover dough with a lightweight kitchen towel and allow to rise for about an hour, or until it has risen above the tops of the pans. *See recipe card notes for quick rise trick.
Bake: Place both bread pans on the middle rack of your cold oven. Turn oven to 350°F and let the bread bake in there for 30-38 minutes, until the tops are golden.
Serve: Remove bread from oven and run the end of a stick of cold butter over the top of the hot bread. Invert from pan and cool on wire rack. Slice homemade whole wheat bread and enjoy with chia seed jam, or in a sandwich.
Store leftover bread in a bread bag on the countertop for up to 3 days, or in the fridge. The bread also freezes well for up to 3 months, in an air-tight freezer safe bag.
Uses for Stale leftover Bread:
Whole wheat bread may start to dry out after 2-3 days, but don’t toss it! Use it for:
- Breadcrumbs: Let the bread dry out completely then pulse into crumbs using a food processor or blender.
- French Toast or French Toast Casserole
- Bread Pudding
- Thanksgiving Stuffing
Follow me for more great recipes
Recipe
Whole Wheat Bread
Equipment
- Stand Mixer (Optional)
Ingredients
- 6-7 cups white whole wheat flour*
- 2 3/4 cups + 2 Tablespoons warm water
- 1 1/4 Tablespoons instant yeast* , or active dry yeast
- 1 Tablespoon vital wheat gluten*
- 1 Tablespoon salt
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter , melted
- 1/3 cup honey
- 2 Tablespoons plain Greek yogurt , or sour cream
Instructions
- To a Mixing Bowl or Stand Mixer: Add 4.5 cups wheat flour and yeast and stir to combine. Add warm water and mix.
- Cover and allow to rest for 15 minutes.
- Add vital wheat gluten, salt, melted butter, honey, Greek yogurt and mix well.
- Knead: Add 1 ½ cups of flour and mix. Mix well and watch the dough; it should begin to pull away from the sides of the bowl. If needed, add more flour, a little at a time, until it does. Knead the dough with your stand mixer for 5 minutes (or by hand for 10 minutes). The dough should be smooth and elastic.
- Prepare Pans: Spray bread pans with non-stick cooking spray and line the bottom of the pans with parchment.
- Shape: Turn dough out onto a lightly greased or floured countertop and divide it into two equal pieces. Press each portion into a rectangle about 9 inches long and then roll tightly into a log. Place in prepared pans.
- Rise: Cover with a lightweight kitchen towel and rise for about an hour, or until the dough is rounded over the tops of the pans. *See notes for quick rise trick.
- Bake: Place both bread pans on the middle rack of a cold oven. Turn the oven to 350 degrees F and bake for 30-38 minutes, until the tops are golden.
- Remove from oven and smooth a stick of cold butter over the tops of the hot bread. Invert bread onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
- Store leftover bread in a bread bag on the countertop for up to 3 days, or in the fridge. See notes, for freezing instructions.
Notes
Nutrition
Create a FREE Account to save your favorite recipes and create meal plans
Search Our Recipes
*I originally shared this recipe February 2015. Updated February 2019 and January 2022 and January 2025.
Recipe adapted from Bosch.
This post contains affiliate links.
As compared to your white bread recipe, which is terrific, this one is somewhat puzzling. I dropped the added/linked gluten thing, added a 10-min yeast proofing stage, and a 1-hr first rise before dividing, panning and baking to insure lightness. (The warm oven rise hack is a good one, incidentally.)
Skipping a first rise is more indicative of denser, artisan-style breads, rather than fluffy table, slicing or sandwich bread. So it depends upon the use, I suppose.
My only suggestion would be to put a temp recommendation for beginners. My bread looked done, so if I hadn’t googled I wouldn’t have known bread needs to be 190 degrees to be safe to eat. I had to cook an additional ten min. Bread still came out moist and delicious!
My first time making bread and it looked perfect, following the recipe exactly, but when slicing it open the inside was not completely cooked. The bread needed at least another 15 minutes in the oven. Second loaf went back in at 375 for 15 minutes and worked out. Cut loaf did not recover…
No, Brittany, this is incorrect, unless you define “safe to eat” as “done-ness” for purposes of not being gooey inside. Most MEATS are considered “safe” well under 190, much less bread ingredients that could be eaten raw quite harmlessly.
I wished I had read your whole blog…. I just went straight to the recipe. Then I doubled it thinking that your recipe was only for 2 loaves. I should have see by the amount of flour used (12 cups) was going to give me more than 2 loaves. I was looking more at the yeast used. I was making bread into the early morning hours. The bread came out incredible!! I made them all with honey yogart. The first 2, I made are have honey on the top of added just before baking, and the second 2 have 3 overly ripe bananas plus some addition oat flour added and fresh copped and floured cherries with coconut sugar placed on the rolled out doe, then rolled up, and baked. SO GOOD!
I tried the whole wheat bread and it sank down while baking… Sadness. I did everything as directed. Any advice to keep that from happening?
Could you use a sourdough starter instead of the yogurt
I did not have either yogurt or sour cream. So I tried mayonnaise and it worked!
This is a delicious recipe! My husband has already had 3 slices and it just came out of the oven 30 minutes ago!
Will there be a benefit in giving this dough 2 rises?
My family LOVED this bread. They don’t want supermarket bread any more
What’s your idea for the best flour….either white or whole wheat
My favorite is King Arthurs White Whole Wheat flour.
Perfect and easy recipes.
I don’t have vital wheat gluten so I used 250 g of high protein instead and less 50 g of water because of the weather, I learned this from other bakers that we need to be careful with liquid during humidity.
I follow every thing exactly the same, and the results is wonderful. Will keep this recipe as a quick baking.
For those who having issues, please know that every country had different flour, yeast and most importantly is the weather.
Today we have wet, damp weather from raining nonstop, I leave my bread fought to rise in a closed room with dehumidifier, it work better than many who says about using the steam, oven or microwave. And remember to put less water during humid weather.
I would like to try this recipe but my question is what could you use instead of yogurt? We are dairy free in our house.