Slightly Sweet Wheat Bread

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While I love making homemade sourdough bread, I don’t always have the time for it. The dough takes longer to rise than regular yeast bread recipes, and I often forget to set out my starter the night before.

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A few weeks ago, I wanted some homemade bread but my starter wasn’t ready so I found a great Betty Crocker recipe and tweaked it a bit.

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This bread is awesome for sandwiches – a good crust and not too hard or chewy. I don’t know about you, but I like soft bread for sandwiches and this recipe gave me just what I wanted.

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Like most bread recipes, this makes 2 loaves. We ate one throughout the week and I sliced and frozen one whole loaf to have on hand later.

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Slightly Sweet Wheat Bread (adapted from Old Fashioned Honey-Whole Wheat Bread)

  • 3 cups whole wheat bread
  • 2 Tbsp honey
  • 2 Tbsp agave nectar
  • 2 Tbsp canola oil
  • 1 Tbsp salt
  • 2 packages yeast (about 5 tsp)
  • 2 1/4 cups warm water
  • 1 more cup whole wheat flour + 2 cups bread flour
  1. Mix 3 cups whole wheat flour, honey, agave, canola, salt and yeast in a large bowl.
  2. Add warm water and mix together, scraping down sides when needed (I did the mixing all by hand since I don’t have a stand mixer – still pretty easy!)
  3. Add in the rest of the flour one cup at a time until the dough is easy to handle/not sticky.
  4. Knead the dough until smooth and elastic.
  5. Coat large bowl with a little oil and  add the dough, tossing to coat the dough with oil.
  6. Cover and let rise 40-60 minutes or until it’s doubled in size. The dough is ready when an indentation stays in the dough when you touch it.
  7. Punch down the dough and divide in half.
  8. Shape dough into loaves and put in greased bread pans.
  9. Cover bread pans and let dough rise 35-55 minutes or until doubled in size again.
  10. Put oven rack on low position and preheat oven to 375.
  11. Bake bread 40-45 minutes or until the loaves are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped.
  12. Let cool on wire rack before serving – if you can!

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Homemade bread is my new obsession. It’s so easy and so delicious!

 

Want to know my favorite new kitchen item?

A pastry cloth.

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Nick’s dad has one and, after watching him use it to make biscuits and bread, I knew I needed one.

I found mine in a kitchen store at the Amish market in Harrisonburg, but you can get them anywhere. This one cost me $4 and came with a rolling pin cover!

You can knead any dough on this pastry cloth and it keeps your counter from getting dirty and coated with flour.

The easiest part? Once you’re done using it, you can just shake off the excess flour outside and scrape off any dough particles with a razor blade or knife. Plus, the more you use it, the better it works.

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13 comments

  1. Lovely bread, Brandi! You are becoming quite the bread maker!

  2. That bread looks like it came straight from a bakery! Yum!

  3. This sounds SO GOOD! You have become the queen when it comes to yeast breads. I still can’t talk myself up to them, but I do love my sweet breads

  4. I love homemade bread — it is amazingly better than anything that is bought in the store!

  5. Oh my gosh… I LOVE homemade bread! I used to make french bread all the time but had to stop because I ate waaay too much of it. I could just finish off half a loaf with some butter for dinner. I’ll have to try that recipe and try to control myself :)

  6. I recently bought Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads book, and I love it! I haven’t tried too many different recipes yet, but I’m looking forward to it. I feel so accomplished when the dough rises and I can pull a perfect looking loaf from the oven. I think I might have to invest in a pastry cloth though!

  7. amazing! i wish i had more time to do something like make my own bread. maybe a weekend project?

    • Yup – mine is ALWAYS on the weekends ;) There’s no way I could bake bread during the week!

  8. i can’t wait to try this recipe on my next day off!!!

  9. Nice to meet you Brandi! And glad you found my site. Your’s is great too. I look forward to following you. And love your bread recipe. I need to try making bread without my bread machine…And your recipe may be a great start!

  10. Brandi you are such a wonderful little bread maker! I think that is what I shall call you now…Brandi the Bread Maker! :) Love you girl!

  11. That looks so great! I love homemade bread and wish I was a better baker!

  12. Oh that bread looks amazing! The pastry cloth sounds so handy too!

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