Homemade 100% Whole Grain Bread
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
You won't believe how sweet, fluffy and tender this whole wheat bread is! It is a naturally dairy-free and vegan staple in our home. Note that the prep time does not include rising. Bread is actually very quick to make when it comes to hands-on time; it just requires patience!
Author:
Recipe type: Breakfast
Cuisine: American
Serves: 12 servings
Ingredients
  • 1¼ cups very warm water (but not hot or boiling)
  • 2¾ teaspoons dry active yeast (2¼ teaspoons above 3000 ft altitude)
  • ¼ cup oil (rice bran, grapeseed, or your choice of baking oil)
  • ¼ cup maple syrup (or your choice of liquid sweetener)
  • 3 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
  • 1½ teaspoons salt
  • 3 cups white-whole wheat flour, plus additional as needed
  • ¾ cup dry 8 grain hot cereal or 7 grain hot cereal
Instructions
  1. Pour water in a large bowl. Sprinkle with yeast and let sit for 5 minutes. If it doesn’t become foamy, your yeast may be old and inactive. Consider starting over with fresh yeast.
  2. Stir the oil, sweetener, gluten, salt, 1 cup flour, and the 8-grain mix into the yeast-water mixture, mixing until well combined (by hand or using a mixer with the dough hook attachment). Add 2 cups wheat flour, and mix again until well combined. Begin kneading with your hands when it becomes too thick to stir.
  3. If the dough is too sticky to handle, add more flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it is still a little tacky, but doesn’t stick significantly to your hands. The 8-grain mix will soak up some of the moisture as it cooks, so you don’t want the dough to be on the dry side.
  4. Knead the dough for a few minutes. Place dough back in the bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm, draft-free place for about 1 hour.
  5. Thoroughly grease and flour a 9x5-inch loaf pan.
  6. Punch dough down, and briefly knead to get any air bubbles out. Shape dough into a loaf that will fit in your pan, folding under as you shape so that the seam is on the bottom. Plop the loaf shape into your prepared pan. Lightly cover (with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel) and let rise in a warm, draft-free place for 1 hour, or until it has risen to near a full loaf size, and the crown of the dough is peaking about an inch above the pan.
  7. Preheat your oven to 350ºF.
  8. Bake the bread in your preheated oven for 35 to 45 minutes, or until the crust is golden and relatively firm to the touch.
  9. Pop the loaf out and let it cool completely on a wire rack before wrapping in plastic wrap or storing in an airtight container at room temperature. If you are in a humid climate, you may need to refrigerate or freeze the loaf after 2 days to keep it fresh.
Notes
This recipe is a version of the Whole-Grain Sandwich Bread Recipe in my flagship book, Go Dairy Free: The Ultimate Guide and Cookbook.
Recipe by Go Dairy Free at https://www.godairyfree.org/recipes/vegan-whole-grain-bread