Whole Wheat Bread (Soft & Hearty) (Soft & Chewy!)

With step-by-step pictures and plenty of helpful tips, learn how to make soft whole wheat bread with this easy-to-follow recipe. You can make this bread 100% whole wheat, or you can use a combination of whole wheat and bread flour for a slightly taller, fluffier loaf. It’s wonderfully soft and flavorful either way! If you’re new to working with yeast, reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.

I know there’s major convenience with store-bought bread, but I encourage you to try making it from scratch at least once. (You might be hooked after that!) This whole wheat bread takes a few hours, but most of the work is hands-off while the dough rises. Fresh-baked bread smells incredible and tastes even better—store-bought sandwich bread just can’t compare! Wait until you smell a slice popping up in the toaster.

Here’s Why You’ll Love This Whole Wheat Bread

• Chewy crust with soft texture inside
• Flavorful & hearty
• Lightly sweetened with honey
• Makes delicious toast and sandwiches, and can be used in recipes like French toast, breakfast casserole, & sausage herb stuffing
• Easy to make ahead or freeze
• 8 simple ingredients

Behind the Recipe/Recipe Testing

Until now, I’ve shied away from attempting 100% whole wheat bread, because developing a recipe for a perfectly soft and tasty loaf was a tall order. Why? Because whole wheat flour is finicky and can be difficult to get right in a bread recipe.

There are usually 2 key problems when it comes to using 100% whole wheat flour in a bread recipe.

1. Because of the bran layer of the wheat grain, bread using 100% whole wheat flour can taste bitter or sour. (Still, always make sure your whole wheat flour is fresh; it can become rancid if stored for too long.)
2. Whole wheat flour doesn’t contain the same level of gluten as white flours. This missing gluten can produce a dense and/or flat loaf. Many whole wheat bread recipes call for the addition of vital wheat gluten to make up for it, but I don’t usually keep that in my kitchen… and you may not either.

I experienced both issues in my initial attempts at this recipe. I found that adding a little acid to the dough helped offset the bitterness, and introducing a preferment “sponge” helped give the loaves better flavor, as well as more height. Obviously whole wheat bread will never be as soft, tender, and chewy as white sandwich bread, but this one comes pretty close with my careful recipe & solutions.

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Best Ingredients to Use in Whole Wheat Bread & Why:

1. Water: Warm liquid activates yeast. I use mostly water in this dough because we need a bread that has structure. Using all milk, like I do for my whole wheat dinner rolls, would yield a flimsy bread without much texture, which isn’t ideal for slicing as sandwich bread.
2. Whole Milk: To yield a soft bread, you need fat in the dough, so make sure some of the liquid is milk. Low-fat or nondairy milk works too, but whole milk produces phenomenal texture and I highly recommend it.
3. Yeast: You can use active dry yeast or instant yeast. If using active dry, the rise times will be a bit longer. I tested it with both.
4. Honey: Honey feeds the yeast, increases its activity, and lightly sweetens the bread. In our testing, my team & I unanimously agreed honey was the tastier option over regular granulated and brown sugar. I also use a little honey when making whole wheat pizza dough.
5. Butter: Butter promises a flavorful loaf.
6. Lemon Juice: This ingredient may seem strange, but it’s essential for preventing the bread from tasting too bitter. If you don’t have lemon juice, apple cider vinegar is a great substitute.
7. Salt: You can’t make flavorful bread without salt!
8. Flour: You can use all whole wheat flour, or swap 1 cup of whole wheat flour for 1 cup of bread flour. The bread is soft either way, but a little bread flour yields a slightly taller, fluffier, and lighter loaf. We enjoy it both ways.

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Start With Making the Sponge (It’s Easy)

For the sponge, you’ll use all of the liquid (both the water and milk) and yeast in the dough, plus some of the flour. Mix this all together with a spatula, cover it lightly, and let it double in size for about 60 to 90 minutes.

While this step does extend the total time of the recipe, the sponge is crucial for producing a more complex flavor, and gives the bread a lighter texture. By skipping this step, your bread will be a little flat. (In taste and appearance!)

Once the sponge doubles in size, add the remaining ingredients and begin mixing, which will deflate the air and make way for the final dough.

This is the sponge before rising:

At this point, the process follows my sandwich bread pretty closely. You’ll knead the dough, then let the dough rise twice. Lesson you’ll learn today: making a delicious whole wheat bread is not a race. We must have some patience here! (A hard ask when homemade bread is the reward…)

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Step Photos to Help You

Make the dough: I recommend using a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment (most stand mixers are sold with it). If you don’t have a stand mixer, mix the dough together with a spatula or wooden spoon (and a little arm muscle!).

Knead the dough: You can continue beating the dough with the dough hook, or you can knead the dough by hand.

1st rise (about 2 hours): After you knead the dough, cover it and let it rise in a relatively warm spot. Whole wheat dough requires a slightly longer rise time than white sandwich bread because it’s weighed down with wheat germ and bran.

Once it has doubled in size, punch it down to release the air.

Roll it out into an 8×15-inch rectangle:

Roll it up tightly starting with the 8-inch side, so you have an 8-inch roll to fit into your greased 9×5-inch loaf pan. (Unlike cinnamon rolls, where you roll up the dough starting with the larger side.)

2nd rise (at least 1 hour): Let it rise until it’s about an inch above the rim of the pan. Don’t rush this 2nd rise, unless you want a flat loaf.

And bake! This whole wheat sandwich bread takes about 36–40 minutes in the oven.

Before baking, feel free to top the bread with oats. You’ll need to brush beaten egg white on top of the dough before adding the oats, so they stick. The oat topping is optional.

Success Tips to Keep in Mind

1. You can make this loaf of bread 100% whole wheat, or replace 1 cup (about 125-130g) of the whole wheat flour with bread flour for a lighter, taller, fluffier loaf. The directions remain the same.
2. Knead the dough for a long time, at least 8 minutes. If you have a stand mixer, use it for this recipe. This is a heavy whole grain dough, so it requires a good amount of kneading to help produce a more elastic structure.
3. When kneading, avoid adding too much flour; a slightly tacky and soft dough is OK.
4. Use an instant read thermometer to check the internal temperature of the baked bread. This guarantees you won’t under-bake or over-bake the bread. It’s an incredibly helpful baking tool! The bread is done when the center of the loaf is 195–200°F (90–93°C).
5. If you’re new to working with yeast, please review my Baking with Yeast Guide where I include practical and easy-to-understand answers to many yeast FAQs.

This whole wheat bread is phenomenal when sliced and served warm. The exterior is crisp and crusty, and the interior is hearty, yet soft.

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