About the bake
Our soft wholemeal bread recipe has a wonderful flavour and texture by using very strong wholemeal and very strong white bread flours.
What is the secret to soft bread?
Our top tip is to brush melted butter on the crust of your wholemeal bread after baking to keep it soft. Adding a small amount of milk or substituting all your water in the recipe for milk can result in a softer, fluffier, and richer bread that can has a slightly longer life.
If you enjoyed baking this wholemeal bread recipe, give our ploughman's picnic rolls a go.
Method
Step 1:
Put the flours, salt and yeast into a bowl.
Step 2:
Mix to a soft dough with the honey, oil and water.
Step 3:
Turn onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes.
Step 4:
Shape and put into an appropriate greased tin.
Step 5:
Leave to prove in a warm place slowly until doubled in size.
Step 6:
Add your chosen topping/glaze if using and place in an oven preheated to 220°C (425°F, gas mark 7) and immediately turn the heat down to 200°C (400°F, gas mark 6). Bake for 25-30 minutes. When cooked the loaf should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
Ingredients
- 250g Very strong white bread flour
- 250g Very strong wholemeal bread flour
- 1.5 tsp Salt
- 1.5 tsp Easy bake yeast
- 2 tbsp Honey
- 3 tbsp Sunflower oil
- 250ml Water
Recipe Reviews
This was a nice quick loaf. I just have two issues with the recipe:-
Serves 1? I think you'd have to be quite hungry.
I also needed more water. I used 275ml but I think I should have stopped at 250ml.
Thanks for your feedback. We have amended the water quantity, you may need a little more or less depending on how humid it is when baking, we always recommend adding the water in small amounts whilst mixing as that way you can stop or add more when the consistency feels right. This recipe makes 1 loaf, we have altered the description to make this clearer for our bakers.
I tried this recipe, but as others said, the liquid was too little, so I had to add more. I kneaded it for the 10 minutes, but it was still very tough and not elastic at all. It was also slow rising and I had to stick it in front of the fire to get it growing slowly. It came out very tasty, but dense, as I expected. Will try again with more liquid and maybe mix in milk too? Would gladly take any advice!
Really like this recipe, thank you! I used half milk and half water (~275ml in total worked for me). I also added some sunflower seeds to the mix. The loaf was lovely and soft, and tasted great.
Lovely bread very tasty! I used 230ml of water then during kneading ran my hands under tap to keep dough moist until perfect.
Is there a reason why there are no two proofs, as in the other wholemeal and white bread recipes?
We have found that one prove makes a delicious loaf, however, you can choose to prove this dough twice if you prefer, this will further enhance the texture and flavour.
I changed the whole meal flour for spelt flour, it needed a little more water, but it was very good and nice texture and taste.
Ingredients
- 250g Very strong white bread flour
- 250g Very strong wholemeal bread flour
- 1.5 tsp Salt
- 1.5 tsp Easy bake yeast
- 2 tbsp Honey
- 3 tbsp Sunflower oil
- 250ml Water