The smell of homemade bread is intoxicating for me! A fresh slice from the oven with a little butter on the top is like a taste of heaven! Especially when this bread comes from your very own oven and is made from quality ingredients, no additives, and soaked for the highest nutritional benefit! Who can ask for better? The question is not whether it will save you money to make your own bread (which I am sure it will all the same), but rather you will know exactly what is being put into your bread! It is all about quality and freshness! Making homemade bread was one of my jobs growing up where it was rather of a burden than a joy to complete, but now that I am married and raising a family, I have come to realize the real value of developing this art!
Read a few benefits here.
Helpful Hints on Successful Bread Making
- When possible, use fresh home-milled flour. This will have the highest nutritional content, and the best baking characteristics for higher rising loaves. If this is not possible, store good quality flour in your freezer, but bring it to room temperature before using for the best results.
- Use high quality yeast such as SAF Instant Dry Yeast. This is available in quantity at Costco for a good price. Store in the freezer. It will last 2 years or more. If your yeast does not proof, then it is too old!
- Remember to proof your yeast! Add your yeast to warm water (between 100-115 degrees) with 1 tsp of honey. This will prepare it for action!
- Remember that less flour is best! You should only add just enough flour until the beaters in your mixing bowl are scraping the sides of the bowl clean. If you add too much flour, your bread will be crumbly. Dough should still be slightly sticky before kneading.
- Develop the gluten thoroughly. When dough is properly kneaded it will be smooth and elastic. A quick test for sufficient kneading is to take a golfball-sized portion of dough; stretch it between the thumb and index finger of both hands to determine if the gluten is fully developed. The dough should stretch out thin and not tear readily.
- Make sure to give your dough two risings! The additional rising will develop flavor, gluten framework and make more fluffy loaves. It is optional, if you are in a hurry.
- Only let rise till doubled before baking! This is the mistake I make too often. 30 minutes is a good length of time. If they rise too long the structure of the loaf will become weak and it will sink or fall completely during baking.
Homemade Whole Grain Soaked Bread
Learn more about the benefits of soaking here.
11 cups of ground whole wheat flour (you can replace 1 or 2 cups with unbleached white flour for a lighter end result)
1 cup acid medium (kefir, cultured buttermilk, or whey; for dairy intolerant you can substitute with 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar or lemon juice and 3/4 cup water)
3 cups of warm filtered water
2 cups oats
1 cup honey
3/4 cup coconut oil, or butter melted
1/4 cup raw millet, optional
1/4 cup flax seed, optional
1/2 cup water
1 tsp honey
2 1/2 Tbsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 Tbsp sea salt
2-4 Tbsp dough enhancer (I highly recommend this dough enhancer, as it works very well, but you can also replace with any combination of the following: 3 table spoons vital wheat gluten, 1/2 tea spoon soy lecithin, a pinch of citric acid (use sparingly!), and a sprinkling of ginger)
1 cup unbleached white flour or sprouted flour, if necessary
Sunflower seeds, if desired
Directions:
- Combine the flour, acid medium, oats, honey, melted oil, millet and flax seeds, and 3 cups of filtered water. Cover and soak at room temperature for 12-24 hours.
- After soaking, in a separate small bowl, combine yeast, 1 tsp of honey, and 1/2 cup warm filtered water. Let sit for 5 minutes or so, until fully proofed.
- Combine the yeast mixture, soaked flour mixture, and all the rest of the ingredients in your mixer. You may need to add an additional 1-2 cups of flour. Dough should clean the sides of the mixer.
- Knead the dough for 10 minutes until the gluten is fully developed.
- Remove to a greased bowl and cover with a towel. Let sit until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.
- Punch down, turn dough over, and allow to rise until doubled again, about 45 minutes. (OPTIONAL, but preferred for best results)
- Punch down dough and divide into 4 loaves. Roll out with a rolling pin into a rectangle and roll up into a loaf (this makes the perfectly shaped loaves).
- Place in greased bread bans and rise again until doubled, about 30-45 minutes minutes (the best place is the oven! Just turn it on low 150-170 degrees till heated and then turn it off, prior to putting the loaves in).
- Turn the oven on to 350 degrees and bake for 30-45 minutes. Bread is done when it is fully browned on all sides! Remove from oven, rest in pans for 10 minutes before removing from pans.
Yield: 4 loaves.
If you do not desire to soak your flour, follow these instructions:
You have the option of replacing the 1 cup acid medium with water in the recipe above, so you have a total of 4 1/2 cups of water, or you can use the acid medium and just skip the soaking and proceed as described here.
- Combine yeast, 1 tsp of honey, and 1/2 cup of the total water required. Let sit for 5 minutes or so, until fully proofed.
- Combine the yeast mixture, remaining 4 cups of water (or 1 cup acid medium & 3 cups water), and all the rest of the ingredients in your mixer. Only add as much flour until it cleans the sides of the bowl.
- Knead the dough for 10 minutes until the gluten is fully developed.
- Remove to a greased bowl and cover with a towel. Let sit until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.
- Punch down and divide into 4 loaves. Roll out with a rolling pin into a rectangle and roll up into a loaf (this makes the perfectly shaped loaves).
- Place in greased bread bans and rise again until doubled, about 30-45 minutes minutes (the best place is the oven! Just turn it on low 150-170 degrees till heated and then turn it off, prior to putting the loaves in).
- Turn the oven on to 350 degrees and bake for 30-45 minutes. Bread is done when it is fully browned on all sides! Remove from oven, rest in pans for 10 minutes before removing from pans.
Further Resources
A few excellent articles and tips on making your own homemade bread! Urban Homemaker has an abundance of resources on this topic!
Hi Lindsay! Thank you for your helpful blog. May I ask you–how much wheat do you grind at a time–do you just make enough flour for each time you’re baking, or do you make more flour in advance….and if so, how do you store the flour? In the freezer?
Thanks for your time!
No, I only grind as much flour as I need on a per recipe basis, otherwise it goes rancid very fast.
Do you think I could use a cup of plain yogurt for the acid medium? I can’t wait to try this recipe!
Sure thing!
Hi Lindsay,
I really enjoy your blog! I’ve been trying to incorporate more of the traditional/nourishing cooking philosophy over the last couple of years. I’m finally making bread (which is turning out really nice)! I’ve actually been soaking and drying my grains ahead of time, then milling them. This way, I don’t need to soak the flour. Have you ever done it this way? Am I missing some benefit by not actually soaking the flour? I do soak the whole grains with an acid (raw apple cider vinegar). I’ve used soaked flour in other recipes, but for me, it’s harder to with. Also, I haven’t liked the result as much…except for the blender waffles/pancakes.
I was just curious about your thoughts on this. Thanks!
This is hands-down the BEST whole wheat bread recipe I’ve ever tried–thank you so much for sharing!! Definitely my new go-to bread. Honestly, I don’t have enough superlatives to express how happy I am to find a whole wheat recipe that turned out this beautifully soft, moist, and chewy. I also put a picture and a link back to your post on my blog, so hopefully a few more folks will come and try it out too! Blessings~Jill, domesticreformation.blogspot.com
Lindsay have you calculated the cost of making your bread vs buying it? we go through a lot of bread and I am wondering if I would save much baking my own vs buying organic bread from trader joes. I love your site, thank-you!!
Several people have asked for the link to the bread machine version of this recipe, because the link was broken. You have answered other questions, so could you please answer this one? I really would love to try this with a bread machine! Thanks!
I’m sorry…but it’s not so easy to find a updated link when someone changes their website. I cannot seem to find it now. You might try this recipe of soaked bread for the bread machine.
Maybe it is just tonight but this link is not working….
“Want to make this bread in your bread machine? Check out Inspired Homemaking’s adapted version of my recipe for use in a bread machine.”
This bread is delicious and simple to make. Thanks for sharing!
Help!! I’ve made your recipe twice now and it hasn’t risen. I simply don’t know why. I’ve made bread before – I am accustomed to proofing the yeast, etc. I used sprouted flour for the whole thing which is new for me – is this why it won’t rise? I accidentally used twice the app cider vinegar (I halfed the recipe – that’s the only thing I can see that I did wrong)…..could this be why? The dough is so great looking – it looks perfect for the rising – but it won’t! (I proofed the yeast for 10 minutes and added dough enhancer – still no rising!). Help!
I’m sorry but I really don’t know what to say. If you are using sprouted flour then you really dont have to soak at all, but it wouldn’t affect the rising ability. Is your yeast old? Did it really foam up and bubble when you were activating it? That is really the only thing I can think of that would cause this problem.
I’m confused a bit. With beans, you soak to reduce the bad toxins, but you pour out the soaking water which has the toxins. Then, you add fresh water before cooking. The toxins are not cooked into the beans.
With soaking grains like with this recipe, it’s like all that happens is the saoked water and toxins get reabsorb and cooked into the bread?
Is this right?
I believe the soaking is to break down phyates (enzyme inhibitors); which inhibit digestablity.
Very excited to be making this. I love your blog….even though not a blogger myself. Have you ever not used Vital wheat gluten. I usually make gluten free breads and so I am using Bob mills all purpose gluten free flour and mostly spelt. I love baking with spelt. I know there is a little gluten in that and I am also adding a couple tsps of xanthum gum. I hope it turns out ok. otherwise this will be a huge waste of ingredients. Any suggestions of other substitutions for the additional gluten. Thanks
Is that two cups whole rolled oats or ground oat groats? Thank you in advance
whole rolled oats
Hi Lindsay,
I just tried your recipe. I used goat milk kefir and the bread was a little more sour than I like. Do you think it was because of the type kefir I used. Also, I did soak closer to 24 hours. Anyway the bread was very moist, just a little too sour. I didn’t know if that was the way it was supposed to be. Thanks for your recipes!!
Lindsey, do you use your Bosch anymore now that you have the kitchen aid? Which one would you recommend now that you’ve tried both? Also, are soft winter white wheat berries ok to use for this recipe? Love your blog!!!!!
So I was excited to try this recipe as I’ve never soaked my whole grain flour before. I cut the recipe in half but found that there was barely enough liquid even with the acid medium to “soak” the flour. I waa stuck with a dry and slightly damp mixture. I even double and triple checked all measurements to make sure it wasn’t something I overlooked. Any suggestions??
At the bottom of the post you have a link for a bread machine adaptation from Inspired Homemaker’s but the it does not work. Do you recommend any other sites that use a bread machine? Thanks!
I can’t recommend a site, but I can tell you what worked for me. Make only 1/4 the recipe. So when you soak your grains soak 1/4 the amount of flour, oats etc. in 1/4 the amount of liquids. I mix up all the ingredients first then put it into the breadmaker. (I find that the breadmaker has a hard time getting it all mixed in on its own.) You could add some white/sprouted flour in the breadmaker with the premixed dough if the dough seems sticky. Then I just start the breadmaker on the whole grain setting, regular crust. Good luck!
Thanks so much Sara! I will definitely give that a try
Hi Lindsay,
I have really enjoyed your website. I have two questions for you when it comes to making this bread:
1. How big of a bowl do you mix this in? My largest bowl will not hold the ~20 cups of ingredients for soaking, not to mention the size of the dough as it has risen each time–and it’s a pretty big bowl. I halved the recipe and it barely fit in the bowl once doubled in size.
2. What type of mixer do you use? I have an old (very old) kitchenaid and it would not work this dough at all. The dough just stuck to the mixing blades and went ’round and ’round. So I kneaded it by hand. Also, I’m not so sure all of the ingredients would have fit into the bowl on the mixer either. It was my great aunt’s mixer, and I don’t have all the parts/manuals (just the mixing blades, bowl and mixer). As I said, it is very old.
I have my loaves in the oven now and they smell wonderful! Can’t wait to taste them!
Thanks a bunch!
I used a Bosch mixer for this recipe as you can make up to 6 loaves of bread at once. I recently switched to a professional kitchenaid mixer and that would be another excellent option. You can definitely make it work without these tools, but if you are going to be making bread extensively it is certainly worth the investment.
I am considering getting a mixer soon and thought Bosch was the best – I value your advice and opinion from this blog and would love to hear why you switched and how it’s working out!
First, I love this bread it is so good. Second, are you able to do the kneading with the kitchennaid mixer or do you have to do it by hand? Right now I have a smaller mixer and the dough doesn’t fit in it so I have to do a lot of it by hand which is pretty time consuming. I have 3 young boys and would like to find a mixer that could handle to all of it. Thanks!
Hi–
Love your site! I have a quick question about your whole grain bread recipe. I don’t bake with honey, but do you know if one could substitute Rapadura for the honey? If so, would you say to add an equal amount of Rapadura? Thanks!
I think your best bet would be agave nectar or maple syrup in replacement for the honey…otherwise if you used a dry sweetener you would get a dry texture.
I have been trying MANY whole wheat bread recipes for awhile now, and they always taste too dry or too heavy. I tried this recipe last night and had my first slice today….WOW! This bread is so good. Perfect sandwich bread! My husband agreed that it was the best bread I’ve ever made. Thank you so much for another delicious recipe!!
I just tried your soaked wheat bread recipe. The mixture that I let sit overnight was very dry and when I added the yeast mixture it was so crumbly and hard I couldn’t work it at all. I had to add 1/2C of milk just to make it soft enough to knead. The only thing I did differently was to cut the recipe in half.
What went wrong? I have not baked it yet..first rise.
Blessings in Messiah.
Teresa
Did you cover it during the soaking process? Did you add just enough flour till it was moist but not too dry? It takes a little experimenting…but you don’t want to add too much flour initially. It needs to still be moist and sticky to the touch. It sounds like you added to much in proportion to the liquids. You can also had more water as necessary to keep it moist.
Four loaves seems like an awful lot of bread; does this bread freeze well? If so, should I par-bake it? Also, how should I thaw?
Thanks!
Yes, it freezes very well. I slice it up after it is cooled and then place in ziploc bags. This makes it easy just to pull out a slice or two as needed.
I read somewhere that honey has antibacterial properties and may not be good for ‘sour dough’ type recipes… can you expand on this?? Maybe my source was unreliable??
I don’t have experience with this. This is really not a sourdough type recipe though.
i LOVE this recipe! i am a rookie to bread baking and find your recipe to be fail-proof! lol!
i am wondering what things i would need to tweek if i use spelt flour? more yeast? more acid medium?
thank you so much for this bread recipe! it has been the answer to our bread needs! and finally a healthy bread that my family loves!
My bread was really crumbly? What makes bread crumbly and how can I change this?
Overcooking? Make sure to cool completely as well. It usually crumbles more when it is hot.
hi, i’m a little confused on what you mean by the combination of dough enhancers, could you clarify what i should use as a substitute for the enhancer you use? thank you, with much appreciation! Cyndy
Vital wheat gluten alone can be used as a substitute or the following recipe: 3 tablespoons vital wheat gluten, 1/2 teaspoon soy lecithin, a pinch of citric acid (use sparingly!), and a sprinkling of ginger
Sticky> What is too sticky? When I touch the dough with my finger it sticks, if I pick some up it clings on quite well. Warm running water is needed to get it off.
Thank you
I am assuming you are referring to the adding enough flour? You don’t want your finger to stick. The dough needs to be soft and pliable to the touch but not to cling to your hand.
Thanks so much for this fabulous bread recipe! I’ve been searching for quite a while for one that I really like and have finally found it! I don’t have any flax seed, so each time I have made this bread I have included caraway seed instead. Great flavor with the caraway seed.
First of all I just wanted to thank you for all that you do on your website. I stumbled upon it about a year ago and you have truly inspired me to make major healthy changes to my family’s diet and overall health. I always knew I wanted to make these changes but you gave me the tools and inspiration to make it a reality. Thank you Lindsay! Anyway, I made your bread for the first time last week amd loved it! I am about to make it again and was just wondering about any variations you have ever tried? Maybe adding cinnamon/raisin or cranberry/orange? Would you recommend trying this? If so, how and in what part of the process? TIA!
Yes, I have made cinnamon raisin bread. It is best to add these by rolling out the dough into a long rectangular shape after it is soaked and kneeded and ready to put into the pan. Simply apply some melted butter, cinnamon, and raisins and then roll up the dough to form your loaf.
I am trying to understand this soaking. If the dough isn’t the right consistency and I need to add 2 more cups flour later, isn’t that defeating the purpose of soaking? Or did you mean soaking extra flour to use later if necessary? I’ve never done this before and want to understand all the directions.
Thank you.
The additional flour would be unbleached white flour or sprouted flour so you wouldn’t have to worry about the phytates as they are already non-existent in these flours. But more often then not, you don’t need to add any more flour after soaking. It just takes a little experimenting.
Lindsay,
I love this bread recipe! I made it with yogurt the first time and it was perfect. I thought this time I would try to make it dairy free. I used the 1/4 apple cider vinegar. I think it looks dry this morning. Should I have added water also? The recipe said apple cider or lemon juice and water and I am
afraid I misunderstood. Should I add water now?
Thank you so much,
Patricia
Yes, you need to add 3/4 cup water to equal the 1 cup soaking medium.
Thank you. Oh well, I will try it again tomorrow:)
I was brave and attempted the buns. I put them in a 9×13 pan arranged sort of like dinner rolls so they rose into each other and up. They were a success. Thought I would share incase you wanted to try again:)
Good for you! I have made dinner rolls in the fashion that you mentioned with this recipe, but didn’t find they were quite the right shape and texture for hamburger buns, I guess. Just my personal preference.
Could you use this recipe to make hamburger buns. Or would you recommend another.
I have tried but didn’t have much success. It spread out more than rising upwards. Not sure of a good alternative.
I have made hamburger buns several times. The way I really like them is to make them like the sandwich thins in the store. Round and flat. We thought they were great.
Wanted to let you know that you can buy a pan to make hamburger buns. The round indentions cause the buns to go up, not out. I’m looking forward to trying your recipe.
I have been looking for the soaked flour bread recipe that I made and commented on before without any luck. It wasn’t this one that calls for 11 cups of flour. It was the one where you mix it up, let it rest 10 minutes, mix 10 minutes, let it rest 10 minutes, etc. I cannot seem to relocate it and I really want to make it again.
Am I losing my mind or did I indeed find that recipe on this site?
HELP!
You must be thinking of another site.
Lindsay,
Thank you so much for getting back to me. You are right, silly me, I was thinking of a different site. I’m sorry to bother you with my silliness. I would like to thank you for having a site like this. It is so good to know that we can find great recipes like yours to do when we finally realize that we should be eating better and finding out what works better for our bodies. I have been delving into this every since my father died in ’05′ of complications from diabetes,(heart disease, etc.) and I wanted to take better care of myself and my family.
I pray God richly blesses you and your family as you aspire to do the same for yourself and your family as well as all who come to your website.
Thank you again.
CindyKay
What size loaf pan did you use? I have 1 1/2 lb pans. Thanks, can’t wait to try this recipe. I love your website, such great information:)
Yeast bread recipes use an 8″ X 4″ pan and produce a 1 lb bread. I only have 9″ X 5″ pans (what you find in most stores now) which produce a 1.5 lb bread. This will give you a flatter/shorter bread. To convert a 1 lb bread recipe for a 1.5 lb pan, just multiply all the ingredients by 1.5. Also, I just found out that depending on the material of the pan, oven temperatures may need to be adjusted. If you use a glass pan, decrease the oven temp by 25 degrees.