For a long time I used the Whole Grain Sandwich Bread and enjoyed it but it was a bit too sweet for me. When I read Stella Parks’ brilliant 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread on Serious Eats I gained a new favorite recipe. The only reason I am publishing a version here is that I had to quite dramatically reduce the amount of water in the recipe to make it work. The only reason I can think of for this is that perhaps home-milled whole wheat flour has more moisture. All I know is that every time I made Parks’ recipe as written, it was too gloopy and I ended up with slack loaves. So if you need ratios for home-milled flour, keep reading. But I cannot begin to match Parks’ precision and photos so if you want to see the details on technique, read her original recipe.
While we could use this bread for sandwiches, our favorite use for it is to turn it into toast and have it along side homemade soup. It is reminiscent in the best way of the frozen Rhodes whole wheat bread my mom used to bring home from the grocery store and which I loved. I can make a loaf or two (one after the other as my 16-cup Breville food processor isn’t quite powerful enough to make two loaves at once), slice them and freeze them ready to pull out and toast.
INGREDIENTS
DIRECTIONS
- Mix the whole wheat flour with the water in a large bowl. I like to use my dough whisk for this part. You want to make sure there is no loose flour left in the bowl. Then cover loosely with a tea towel, cling wrap or a silicone lid and set aside for 2 1/2 hours
- Once the resting time is over, break the dough into pieces and put in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade (not dough) attachment
- Add the sugar, yeast and salt
- Process for 75 seconds or so until you can make a windowpane with the dough
- With the food processor running, drizzle in the oil and water mixture and mix until incorporated. The dough will be really sticky but elastic even with the reduced amount of water
- Transfer the dough as best you can back into the big bowl (no need to wash it out) then cover again and let rise until puffy and doubled, about 2 hours
- Tip out the dough onto a lightly-floured board, counter or silicone mat. Because I’m milling my own flour, I don’t bother to mill extra just for this purpose and just use all-purpose white flour
- Pat into a 7-inch square and then fold each side inward to make a loaf shape. I squish the loaf together pretty well so the seam doesn’t fall open
- Put shaped loaf into a lightly-greased 1lb loaf tin and let rise until the dough is about 2 1/2 inches above the pan in the middle. It will take an impression and spring back once it’s ready. Cover gently again with the tea towel and let rise about 75 minutes or until it meets the criteria
- At the hour mark, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, making sure the rack is in the middle
- Bake the loaf for about 45 minutes or to an internal temperature of about 200 degrees F.
- Remove from the oven and turn out onto a rack to cool. Let cool completely before slicing (though we often do not manage this—it does make the slices more gummy if you slice too soon)
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