King Arthur's 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
Your search for the perfect loaf of 100% whole wheat sandwich bread is over. Here's our favorite.
1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) lukewarm water
3 tablespoons olive oil
5 tablespoons honey, molasses or maple syrup
3 1/2 cups King Arthur Organic Whole Wheat Flour
1 tablespoon King Arthur Whole-Grain Bread Improver, optional
1/4 cup sunflower seeds, chopped*
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped*
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
*A quick whirl in the food processor does the job nicely.
To prepare the dough: Combine all of the ingredients, and mix them till you have a shaggy dough. Let the dough rest, covered, for 20 minutes, then knead till fairly smooth. Allow the dough to rise, covered, for 1 to 2 hours, or until it's puffy and nearly doubled in bulk.
Gently deflate the dough, shape it into a log, and place it in a lightly greased 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch bread pan. Cover the pan with a proof cover or lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow it to rise for about 1 hour, till it's crowned about 1 inch over the rim of the pan.
Bake the bread in a preheated 350°F oven for 45 minutes, tenting it lightly with aluminum foil for the final 20 minutes of baking. Yield: 1 loaf.
Reviews
01/09/2009
This was my first attempt at bread baking, and it went very well. The dough was a lot stickier than I'd been prepared for, so that made me nervous, but it was fine. I LOVED the sunflower seeds and walnut suggestion. My only complaint was that I would have preferred a slightly sweeter taste. I notice other recipes on here calling for orange juice. Do you think it would be ok to replace some of the water in the recipe with OJ?
Yes you can subsitute 1/3 cup of orange juice for an equal amount of water. Joan @ bakers hot line
06/06/2009
an excellent 100% ww flour bread. this has become my failproof weekly bread baking recipe. i double it and have made a couple of minor changes. i don't use the grain improver but use 1/4 cup of your non-instant dried milk. for the sunflower seeds and walnuts i use an equal amount of your harvest grains mix. i get beautiful high light loaves every time. i wonder if the previous reviewer lets the dough sit for 20 miniutes before the actual kneeding. it takes whole grains longer to soak up the liqueds as you know. i find that by the time i am shaping it into loaves it is a nice smooth soft easily handled dough. this is a king arthur 100% guaranteed recipe for me.
06/11/2009
I loved this recipe. Did not have sunflower seeds, but since boyfriend does not like, I don't think I'll add them in. Any suggestions on other seeds that would be good? Other than than, I did not add the improver, and it did turn out pretty good. I think this will become my new weekly bread.
Pumpkin seed would be nice or even sesame seeds. But this bread is great even without any additions. Joan@bakershotline
08/04/2009
Excellent bread!
If I double this recipe, would I double the yeast as well? Thanks!
Generally if you are going from 1 loaf to 2 loaves, you don't need to change the amount of yeast. mary @ KAF
08/09/2009
I love this bread, but have to add additional flour during the kneading process as it is quite sticky. How should the dough feel in the end?
Thanks
Hi Mary,
The dough should be on the sticky side, and it will not be as smooth as a plain white bread dough. Remember, it is better to err on the wetter side for dough rather than the drier, especially with whole grain breads. MJR @ KAF
09/29/2009
This is the bread I bake twice a week. I don't add any of the fancy stuff, no improver or seeds, etc., and it comes out perfectly every time. Sometimes the dough is stickier than others, but it doesn't matter. The finished product is consistently great.
10/01/2009
I suppose I messed up. The dough was beyond sticky...it was more of a batter. I let it rest for the required 20 minutes (probably a bit more) and then used my stand mixer to knead it, as I always do. Even adding a little more flour didn't help. I decided to let it be and see what happened.
The first rise was fine; puffy and doubled but still batter-like. Working it into a log was near impossible so I ended up just dumping in the pan where it spread out. Second rise was a major disappointment, but I had to keep going.
My loaf is more of a brick than a loaf of soft bread. I followed the instructions exactly (except the bread improver, I don't have any), adding only vital wheat gluten (again, as always). I don't know what happened...
This has been a very rainy year for many of us and my guess it that your four contained more moisture then usual. This is not suppose to be as wet as your description. It is always very important to have the correct consistency for your dough. There are some pictures to use as a guide and it is best to add enough flour to have the correct consistency. This is a great loaf-I hope you will give in another try. If you have any questions please call our bakers hot line. Joan@bakershotline.
10/03/2009
Just baked this tonight, with a few tweaks...I used butter rather than olive oil, lowered the amount of nuts/seeds and used a combo of sunflower seeds and toasted almonds rather than walnuts. It was DELICIOUS! I am relatively new to the bread scene, and have been testing recipe after recipe to find an all whole wheat, everyday bread. Some were pretty decent (and some were perfect bird-feeding material), but none of them were moist enough, fluffy enough, with that perfect balance of sweet and nutty...until this one. I think I've found my staple bread!
11/08/2009
Tasty but a bit too dry
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