This is the Whole Wheat Bread Recipe you’ve been looking for: Soft, Delicious, Healthy, 100% Whole Wheat, Oil-free, and Vegan.
Made with wholesome ingredients, it’s a super versatile bread. It’s soft inside but with a great texture that makes it an excellent choice for sandwiches, snacks, breakfast, toast, and more.
You can also add your tweaks to flavors and toppings.
HOW TO PREPARE THIS WHOLE WHEAT BREAD
(Please read the printable recipe card below for detailed ingredients, measurements, steps, and notes).
There is nothing better than delicious and healthy homemade bread. The magical smell in your home, knowing the ingredients you are using, and the taste!
I skipped the task to do my own bread for a while, but I didn’t look back once I started. If you follow a whole food plant-based diet, you know it isn’t easy to find bread without oil, butter, and ingredients you cannot pronounce correctly. There are only a few healthy options, but sometimes they are difficult to find in your nearby store.
This recipe is easy to follow and only needs a few ingredients. It requires a bit of patience for the waiting time to rise, but the active time is short, and in the end, everything is worth it.
The essential ingredients for the dough are flour, water, and yeast. I added other special tweaks to improve the flavor and texture.
Ingredients
For the preparation, you’ll need:
- Whole Wheat Flour: as I like to say, this is the star of the recipe. You will need 100% whole wheat flour for this recipe.
- Flaxseed meal: this ingredient adds fiber and protein content to the recipe, as well as helping as a binder and improving the texture since we are not adding any oil.
- Potato starch: it helps with the bread’s binding and texture. You can use arrowroot instead.
- Yeast: I’m using dry yeast for this recipe.
- Water and orange juice: You can use only warm water. It’ll work fine; however, doing some research, I found this tip here about adding part of the liquid content as orange juice to reduce the bitter flavor of whole wheat flour. So, I decided to add it. But you can only use water, 1 ¾ cup in total, if not using orange juice.
- Maple syrup: for a subtle sweetness, we love in our bread.
- Sea salt: for flavor preference. You can skip it to make this bread salt-free.
- Optional for topping: aquafaba for brushing, rolled oats, and sesame seeds. Or you can use the seeds of your preference.
Steps
To prepare this Whole Wheat Bread, we need to mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. We left the salt for later.
Then, place the water, orange juice, and maple syrup in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat the preparation until it reaches 100 to 110° F (38-43° C). Pour this preparation into a large mixing bowl, add the yeast, and let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes or until it looks foamy.
Now it’s time to add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Combine all the ingredients until you get a sticky dough that also pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
Add the salt, combine, and knead the dough for about 10 minutes. The dough should look very smooth, elastic, and bouncy but still a little bit tacky.
Let it rest and rise for about 1 hour in a warm area.
After the dough has risen, gently punch the dough down a couple of times to release air bubbles. Roll it into a ball, form an oval, and place it into the loaf pan—Preheat to 350° F (190° C). Let the dough rise again for about 30 to 45 minutes until it is about an inch above the loaf pan.
Add some topping (optional) and bake it for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove and let it cool completely before slicing.
What you’ll love about this recipe? Well, it’s:
- 100% Whole Wheat!
- Healthy.
- Soft inside.
- Crusty on the outside.
- Flavorful and versatile.
Let’s prepare this Homemade Whole Wheat Bread!
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RECIPE AND INSTRUCTIONS
WHOLE WHEAT BREAD RECIPE
Equipment
- 2 mixing bowls
- 1 loaf/bread pan
Ingredients
- 3 ¼ cups whole-wheat flour
- 2 tbsp potato starch Or arrowroot.
- 2 tbsp flaxseed meal
- 1 ¼ cup water
- ½ cup orange juice
- 2 tbsp maple syrup Or date syrup.
- 1 tbsp dry active yeast
- 1 ½ tsp sea salt You can skip it to make this bread salt-free.
Optional for topping
- 2 tbsp aquafaba
- 2 tbsp Old Fashion Rolled Oats Or sesame seeds, a mix of both, or any other seed you prefer (optional for topping).
Instructions
- Mix the whole wheat flour, potato starch, and flaxseed meal in a bowl, and set aside.
- Place the water, orange juice, and maple syrup in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat the preparation first for 1 minute, and then for an additional 15 seconds every time, until reaching 100 to 110° F (38-43° C). It has to be warm but not hot otherwise, it can kill the yeast. You can also use a saucepan over medium-low heat instead.
- Pour the warm liquid into a large bowl, add the yeast, and stir until combined. Let this preparation rest for about 5-10 minutes until it looks foamy. With this step, we make sure the yeast is activated and not expired*.
- Add the whole-wheat flour, potato starch, and flaxseed meal into wet ingredients. Using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, combine all the ingredients until you get a sticky dough that also pulls away from the sides of the bowl. If the dough is still sticking and not separating from the bowl, add no more than 2 tbsp of flour at a time. If it's to dry, add 2 tbsp of water at a time. Now add the salt if you are using it, and combine.
- When the dough ball is formed, it's time to begin kneading: folding, rolling, and rotating it. Since the dough is a little bit sticky, I usually prefer kneading it in a big bowl. You can put a little bit of flour in your hands or water. Also, be free to use a lightly flowered surface or stand mixer**. Continue kneading until the dough looks very smooth, elastic, bouncy, but still a little bit tacky (around 10 minutes).
- Cover the dough with a damp towel or paper towel. Let it rest and rise for about 1 hour *** in a warm area. The dough should roughly double in size.
- Prepare a 9×5 loaf pan. I prefer silicone ones to avoid sticking. However, I've used other pans without oil, just adding a piece of parchment paper at the bottom (you can also use a lightly greased pan).
- After the dough has risen, gently punch the dough down a couple of times to release air bubbles. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface, form a rectangle with your fingers, fold both sides to the center, roll it from the top into an oval shape and place it into the loaf pan. Cover and let it rise again in a warm place, this time for about 30 to 45 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350° F (190° C).
- It's time to bake when the dough is about an inch (2.5 cm) above the loaf pan (don't let the dough rise more than that). If using, brush the top with aquafaba and add the oats/seeds. Place on the middle rack and bake the loaf for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown (the loaf sounds hollow when you tap).
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool a while before removing it from the pan (around 5 minutes) and placing it on a cooling rack. Let it cool completely before slicing for the best results.
- Enjoy your homemade bread for breakfast, sandwiches, toast, and more!
Notes
- * If the yeast isn’t activating, we must prepare that mixture again. Always check the expiration date of the yeast and the liquid temperature (with a food thermometer if you have one).
- ** Once the dough clears the sides of the stand mixer bowl and feels smooth and elastic, stop kneading. Over kneading could cause the bread to become dense after baking it.
- *** Depending on the temperature of the place you are preparing this bread, you might need to let the dough rise longer than the recommended time on this recipe. If the home is too cold, you can add a blanket over the bowl or turn the lights of the oven and place the bowl there.
- If you see that the bread is browning faster on top when it is in the oven, you can cover it loosely halfway through the baking time, using aluminum foil.
- Keep the bread on an airtight container or sealed bag over the counter for up to 2-3 days.
- You can freeze them and keep them for up to 4 to 6 months (separate slices with parchment paper). When you are ready to eat them, reheat them in the toaster. For best flavor, consume during the first month.
WAYS TO ENJOY THIS HOMEMADE WHOLE-WHEAT BREAD
This 100% whole wheat bread is super versatile. It’s soft inside but with a great texture that makes it an excellent choice for sandwiches, snacks, breakfast, toast, and more.
Enjoy it with these spreads:
- Two ingredients Blueberry Jam.
- Make avocado toast with this Easy and Quick Guacamole Sauce.
- Vegan Sour Cream.
- Tofu Vegan Mayo.
Prepare these sandwiches:
- Grill acheese sandwich with this Vegan Potato Cheese.
- Chickpeas Salad Sandwich.
