I know I have said this before… but before I started bogging I do not recall baking bread at home. My husband and I do not eat a lot of bread (I am very “un-Italian” in this aspect) and I always thought that baking bread at home was too complicated and not worth it. My girls however love bread. So, I decided to bake more bread at home… to give them something healthier and definitely tastier. I am also trying to make more whole wheat (or a blend of whole wheat and white) bread and we all love it. This was my first attempt at making sandwich bread and I was so impressed with the result that I made it a few times already. The loaves have a slightly crunchy crust and a pillowy and soft inside and they are delicious. They make the perfect bread to make your favourite sandwiches. Get ready for my next post as I will be giving you a recipe for something that goes really well with this bread! Enjoy!
Recipe adapted from The Kitchn
Ingredients: (makes two 23×12.5 cm – 9×5 inch loaves)
235 ml – 1 cup warm water
10 gms – 2 tsp active dry yeast
235 ml – 1 cup milk
90 ml – ¼ cup honey
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
350 gms – 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
350 gms – 2 ¾ cups whole wheat flour
1 tbsp salt
Put the warm water in a glass and dissolve the yeast into it. Set it aside for a few minutes to activate.
In the meantime, put the milk, honey, extra virgin olive oil and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the hook attachment. Add the water and yeast, two cups of all-purpose flour and stir to combine the ingredients. Add the rest of the all-purpose and whole wheat flours. Stir to form a rough dough. Let this dough stand for 20 minutes so that the flour can absorb the liquid.
Now, knead the dough for 8-9 minutes. If the dough is very sticky, add extra flour little by little. The dough is ready when “it is smooth, feels slightly tacky, forms a ball without sagging, and springs back when poked”.
Form the dough into a ball, spray it with some olive oil and put it into a bowl. Cover it with cling wrap and put it in a warm place to rise until doubled in volume (this will take at least 1 hour).
Then, divide the dough in two and shape each half into a ball. Let them rest for 10 minutes.
Grease two loaf pans. Shape each ball of dough into a loaf. To do so, gently flatten the balls into rectangles. Now fold the bottom third of the dough over itself (like a letter) and then fold the top of the dough down to overlap the other layers and pinch it closed with your fingers (on all sides). Roll the loaf over so that the seam is down, then fold the 2 sides and tuck them underneath. Now gently put the loaf into the pan. The seams should be on the bottom with the tight surface facing up (make sure the top is nicely stretched, so that your loaf can rise well). Let the loaves rise for another 30 minutes. Slash the top with a serrated knife (more carefully than I did!) so that it rises evenly in the oven.
Preheat the oven to 220°C – 425°F. Put the loaves in and turn down the heat to 190°C – 375°F. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until dark golden-brown. They will sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Let them cool completely before slicing.
Notes: These loaves will keep at room temperature for a couple of days. They can also be wrapped in foil and put in freezer bags, and frozen for up to 3 months.
Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
Ingredients
- 235 ml – 1 cup warm water
- 10 gms – 2 tsp active dry yeast
- 235 ml – 1 cup milk
- 90 ml – ¼ cup honey
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 350 gms – 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour plus extra for kneading
- 350 gms – 2 ¾ cups whole wheat flour
- 1 tbsp salt
Instructions
-
Put the warm water in a glass and dissolve the yeast into it. Set it aside for a few minutes to activate.
-
In the meantime, put the milk, honey, extra virgin olive oil and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the hook attachment. Add the water and yeast, two cups of all-purpose flour and stir to combine the ingredients. Add the rest of the all-purpose and whole wheat flours. Stir to form a rough dough. Let this dough stand for 20 minutes so that the flour can absorb the liquid.
-
Now, knead the dough for 8-9 minutes. If the dough is very sticky, add extra flour little by little. The dough is ready when “it is smooth, feels slightly tacky, forms a ball without sagging, and springs back when poked”.
-
Form the dough into a ball, spray it with some olive oil and put it into a bowl. Cover it with cling wrap and put it in a warm place to rise until doubled in volume (this will take at least 1 hour).
-
Then, divide the dough in two and shape each half into a ball. Let them rest for 10 minutes.
-
Grease two loaf pans. Shape each ball of dough into a loaf. To do so, gently flatten the balls into rectangles. Now fold the bottom third of the dough over itself (like a letter) and then fold the top of the dough down to overlap the other layers and pinch it closed with your fingers (on all sides). Roll the loaf over so that the seam is down, then fold the 2 sides and tuck them underneath. Now gently put the loaf into the pan. The seams should be on the bottom with the tight surface facing up (make sure the top is nicely stretched, so that your loaf can rise well). Let the loaves rise for another 30 minutes. Slash the top with a serrated knife (more carefully than I did!) so that it rises evenly in the oven.
-
Preheat the oven to 220°C – 425°F. Put the loaves in and turn down the heat to 190°C – 375°F. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until dark golden-brown. They will sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Let them cool completely before slicing.
Recipe Notes
These loaves will keep at room temperature for a couple of days. They can also be wrapped in foil and put in freezer bags, and frozen for up to 3 months.
I love the smell of home made bread.. 🙂
that’s a spectacular looking loaf – fine bake !
Making bread at home is the best thing we can do. Yours looks so perfect. Good job…!!!
Manu, I have been a follower of your site for some time now. I can’t believe how prolific you are, great stuff.. For what ever reason, (starting about 2 weeks ago) I am unable to log onto your main page (http://www.manusmenu.com/) as some web service service says it has “been suspended”. I can get to your daily recipe page through a Google news feed I also have of your site. Just thought you should know. Keep up the amazing posts…
Hi Mitch! Thank you so much for your comment! I have had a problem with my web host in the past couple of weeks… apparently a bad bot was crawling my site too much and it was over loading the server… it took a while to find out that the bot was the issue, so the host suspended the account in the meantime. Luckily it’s all been solved now. 🙂 I had to install a caching plugin, so you may been seeing a cached page. Try and empty your cache and re open my homepage. It should show normally. Please, do let me know as it works for me, but I am not a very technical person!
Thank you so much for your kind works!!! 🙂
Clearing the cache did work, thanks.
I also never used to bake bread…but my reason was I was so intimidated by yeast…always had horrible result….Now that I’ve finally figured it out I love baking bread (and eating it!). Haven’t tried making whole wheat bread…need to try this soon! Pictures are awesome too!
My husband is Italian and couldn’t conceive of a meal without bread so our breadmaker gets used a lot. But I find that it really doesn’t last longer than a day, unlike shop-bought bread, which is full of enough additives to make your toes curl. Your loaf of bread is very aesthetically pleasing – looks like it could have come from a bakery.
I think once you get into the habit, it really is so much better than many store-bought breads. I still haven’t gotten into that frame of mind, although when I do make it, I am always surprised at how much easier it is than I expected. Will be trying this.
I need to make this.
Manu, this is great! I never used to make bread at home either, but now I love it! I love whole wheat too so I will give this a go next time!
Hi Manuela
I gathered courage to bake bread for the first time ever since your recipe looked so simple. I halved the ingredients enough for one loaf and the results were great.Tried the warm bread with nutella spread! This ones a keeper.
Thanks
Diana
Hi Diana! I am soooo glad you made this bread and you liked it! 🙂 Mmmmmm Nutella is one of my biggest weaknesses! 🙂 Thank you for stopping by and letting me know, I really appreciate it!