100% whole wheat bread for delicious breakfasts - or sandwiches

For quite a long time now I have been baking this wonderful bread every week and it makes my breakfasts tastier and healthier: I found this recipe almost two years ago and it instantly became one of my all-time favorites – and many of my Brazilian readers love it too.

I usually bake this bread on the weekends, cut into slices and freeze them – I take the slices from the freezer as I need them, and even when I forget to do that in advance I can pop the slices straight onto a frying pan over medium heat and in no time I have fresh bread to go with my latte – so good.

Even though this bread is made entirely with whole wheat flour it turns out so tender it is even hard to slice it sometimes. It is delicious and I feel fueled until lunch time every day. My six-year-old nephew is a fan of this bread, too – he was very surprised when I told him a long time ago that I’d made the bread myself. :)

I have also already made this bread replacing 50g of the flour with quinoa flakes and with teff flour and it worked like a charm – when using teff the flavor gets a bit nuttier.

This is a recipe I adapted from the wonderful King Arthur Flour website – if you like baking like I do, their website is perfect for you.

100% whole wheat bread

slightly adapted from King Arthur Flour's wonderful website

 

1 cup (240ml) lukewarm water

2 ½ teaspoons dried yeast

2 tablespoons honey – you can also use agave or maple syrup

¼ cup (60ml) vegetable oil – I use canola

400g whole wheat flour

1 ¼ teaspoons table salt

1 tablespoon rolled or jumbo oats

Place water, yeast and 1 teaspoon of the honey in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook. When mixture foams (about 5 minutes) add the remaining honey, the oil, flour and salt and mix with a spatula or wooden spoon. Mix in medium speed for about 10 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic and pulls away from the sides of the bowl – you can knead by hand for about 15 minutes too.

Cover with plastic wrap and let it proof for 70-90 minutes or until doubled in size.

Lightly brush with oil a 6-cup capacity loaf pan.

Gently deflate the dough to remove the excess air, then roll it onto a lightly floured surface until you get a rectangle of roughly 30x20cm (12x8in), then shape it into a log. Transfer to prepared pan and cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel. Let the bread rise for about 40-60 minutes, or longer if the day is too cold. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F.

Brush the top of the bread lightly with water and sprinkle with the oats, pressing ever so slightly for them to stick. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown - bread should sound hollow when tapped with your fingers. Cool in the pan over a wire rack for 5 minutes, then carefully unmold onto the rack to cool. Cool completely.

Makes 12-14 slices