Today I will share with you one of the most popular recipes in the blog world. This post is rather long and I really want you to read it fully if your are interested in whole wheat bread. Any wheat bread I see usually has maida/ all purpose flour in it to improve texture. And whenever I tried a bread with 100% wheat flour, it always turns out dense and not so light in texture when compared to the white bread. But every thing changed when I bought The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. I saw a whole wheat bread recipe by Peter Reinhart in that book but still I didn’t try it out. When I went to Chennai for the Blogger’s Meet during February, Nandhini vouched for that recipe and she also gave me some interesting tips to get good breads. When this BM was announced, I made sure that one recipe would be the whole wheat bread.
The very first I tried for this BM was this wheat bread. From that day, I have tried it thrice and every time the result was different. Wait! There was no problem with the recipe. It was at different circumstances and I am just going to explain what lead to different results. The very first time I made this bread, I didn’t have the exact sized pan which Peter suggested in the recipe. So I went for a bigger loaf tin and so the bread didn’t have a dome. It was tasty flavourful but flat on top. For many days, I just wanted to blog about it but as I was not happy with the look of the loaf, I tried it again.
This time, I decided to make it in the loaf tin I usually use. But as it is little smaller than the one Peter suggested, I divided the dough and made two more small loaves along with the larger one. Every thing went as planned until the final proofing. The bread rose beautifully and I was so happy. But disaster struck when I switched on my oven for preheat. There was a power shut down and they said that it was for the whole day. Now I didn’t know what to do. I at once contacted BM group on whatsapp and the first suggestion was to punch down the dough, place it in a bowl and return it back to the fridge. I did as suggested and then came the next suggestion. If I let it stay in the bowl, then the bread will have to go through four rises which may result in a sour bread. So shaping and placing it in the pan may do good. I shaped the loaf, put it in the tin again and placed it in the fridge. Now my dough was over enthusiastic that day as the temperature was hot. IN less than 30 minutes, my dough doubled and had a beautiful dome inside the fridge. I was confused. I didn’t want the dough to over proof and loose the gluten. I took out the dough and placed it inside the freezer to control the rise. And I think it worked. The dough stopped rising and stood as a beautiful loaf.

And at 3:30 PM power was restored. I took the loaf out of freezer and allowed it to sit on counter for 1 hour before baking. Then I gave a milk wash and baked it. The crust looked so rustic but I was happy with the loaf. I waited patiently for the loaf to come to room temperature. My daughter wanted to taste it but I didn’t want to slice it at night. I wanted it for the photo shoot. So I told her that it will be available only the next day. She understood and ate her dosa that night. I wrapped it with cling film and let it sit on counter till morning. The first thing I did in the morning was to slice it. I was expecting a not so good bread, but it turned out amazing. Incredibly soft and not at all sour, it was so much like a loaf made with maida with all the goodness of wheat flour. If I am a sane person, I should have stopped there, but as I thought that the loaf was so rustic, i wanted to try it again. After a few days, I tried it again. Every thing went well, but it didn’t rise as much as the previous dough. That day it was raining and the weather was cool so I think it was because of the temperature. Though the loaf was tasty it was not soft as the over proofed loaf.
Here is my conclusion: Next time if I make this, I am going to let the dough rise in the fridge for both the proofing. I know it will take two days to make it, but I think it is worth the wait. I am really happy that I tried it again and again so that I now found out how to make amazing soft and delicious whole wheat bread.
The above two photos are of the second trial and the below snap is of my third attempt. I think now you know the difference.

Source: Bread Baker’s Apprentice
Ingredients:
For The Soaker:
Wheat Flour-1 cup
Water-3/4 cup
Poolish:
Wheat Flour-1 1/2 cups
Instant Yeast-1/4 tsp
Vital Wheat Gluten-1/2 tbs
Water-1 cup
Dough:
Wheat Flour-2 cups
Vital Wheat Gluten-1/2 tbs
Instant Yeast -1/2 tbs
Salt-1 1/3 tsp
Honey-2 tbs
Oil-1 tbs
Curd-1/4 cup
Baking Soda-a pinch
Procedure:
Soaker:
Mix flour and water.
Cover and set on counter overnight.
Poolish:
Mix together flour, vital wheat gluten, instant yeast and water.
Mix until combined.
Cover with wrap and set aside for 2-4 hours.
Once the poolish is double and bubbly, place it in fridge and let it sit overnight.
Next day remove it one hour before dough preparation and let it come to room temperature.
Dough:
In a bowl mix together flour, salt, wheat gluten and yeast.
Mix together curd and baking soda and set aside for 3 minutes.
Now add room temperature poolish and soaker along with oil, curd and honey.
Knead everything together to make dough. No need to add any more water.
Now transfer the dough to your counter and knead for 10-15 minutes or until the dough passes the window pane test.
Oil a bowl and place the dough inside.
Rotate the dough to coat it with oil and cover with cling wrap.
Allow it to double. It may take between 40 minutes to 2 hours depending on the temperature.
Once it is double, transfer to counter, press it to release gas.
Shape it into a rectangle with a width of your loaf tin.
Now start rolling the dough. Roll once and press it into the rec tangle with your palm.
Again roll it and press. Keep on repeating until you reach the edge. Pinch ends to seal.
Place the roll into a greased 8 1/2″ * 4 1/2″ loaf tin with seam side down.
Press the roll to one side of the pan. This will ensure an uniform rise.
Cover it loosely with a cling wrap and allow the loaf to double in size.
Brush the top of the loaf with milk.
Preheat oven to 175°C.
Bake the loaf for 30 minutes.
Then increase temperature to 180°C.
Bake for 15-30 minutes until the top is golden.
Remove from oven, transfer loaf to a wire rack and allow it to cool completely before slicing.
Enjoy with jam, butter or nutella.
Poolish
Soaker
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 51

Whole Wheat Bread Recipe
Ingredients
For The Soaker
- Wheat Flour-1 cup
- Water-3/4 cup
Poolish
- Wheat Flour-1 1/2 cups
- Instant Yeast-1/4 tsp
- Vital Wheat Gluten-1/2 tbs
- Water-1 cup
Dough
- Wheat Flour-2 cups
- Vital Wheat Gluten-1/2 tbs
- Instant Yeast -1/2 tbs
- Salt-1 1/3 tsp
- Honey-2 tbs
- Oil-1 tbs
- Curd-1/4 cup
- Baking Soda-a pinch
Instructions
Soaker
- Mix flour and water.
- Cover and set on counter overnight.
Poolish
- Mix together flour, vital wheat gluten, instant yeast and water.
- Mix until combined.
- Cover with wrap and set aside for 2-4 hours.
- Once the poolish is double and bubbly, place it in fridge and let it sit overnight.
- Next day remove it one hour before dough preparation and let it come to room temperature.
Dough
- In a bowl mix together flour, salt, wheat gluten and yeast.
- Mix curd and baking soda and set aside for 3 minutes.
- Now add room temperature poolish and soaker along with oil, curd and honey.
- Knead everything together to make dough. No need to add any more water.
- Now transfer the dough to your counter and knead for 10-15 minutes or until the dough passes the window pane test.
- Oil a bowl and place the dough inside.
- Rotate the dough to coat it with oil and cover with cling wrap.
- Allow it to double. It may take between 40 minutes to 2 hours depending on the temperature.
- Once it is double, transfer to counter, press it to release gas.
- Shape it into a rectangle with a width of your loaf tin.
- Now start rolling the dough. Roll once and press it into the rec tangle with your palm.
- Again roll it and press. Keep on repeating until you reach the edge. Pinch ends to seal.
- Place the roll into a greased 8 1/2" * 4 1/2" loaf tin with seam side down.
- Press the roll to one side of the pan. This will ensure an uniform rise.
- Cover it loosely with a cling wrap and allow the loaf to double in size.
- Brush the top of the loaf with milk.
- Preheat oven to 175°C.
- Bake the loaf for 30 minutes.
- Then increase temperature to 180°C.
- Bake for 15-30 minutes until the top is golden.
- Remove from oven, transfer loaf to a wire rack and allow it to cool completely before slicing.
- Enjoy with jam, butter or nutella.
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Gayathri, your second loaf looks amazing. Until I saw it I was happy with my Tangzhong method whole wheat bread… but now I want a loaf like yours… only thing is the vital wheat gluten.. Is there any easily available substitute ? I doubt if I’ll get that in Bhubaneshwar.
Just omit it Tanushree. The main difference is the soaker. It really makes the bread soft…
Second loaf does amazing! Hats off to your patience. I though I was the crazy one to try a recipe multiple times.. 🙂 But I am glad you found the right technique to bake a perfect wheat loaf. That mini loaf is cute.
Hello Gayathri,
As usual ,this receipe is also tempting 🙂 And I wanted to try this amazing bread but would you please suggest me the website where can I get gluten …..
Thanks for sharing such a nice receipe.
Thank you Jalprit. I think gourmetco has vital wheat gluten. Try their website..
Bread luks awesome!pics r tempting me to give a try soon ,
In shaa Allah and by d way may I know what’s d white thing u used in making d dough?
Sorry, haven’t added it in the recipe but it is curd. Thank you for pointing it out. Will change the recipe now.
Love your second trial bread and it has come out so beautiful. 2/3rds of the year, we would be in the third situation weather you mentioned and guess have to follow your directions carefully to achieve what you did in the second trial. 🙂
Perfectly made whole wheat bread. Kudos to your persistence and patience. Lovely clicks.
Hi , what can be used in place of Vital wheat gluten… I don’t have it
Without gluten, the bread will be too heavy and dense. Not sure about the substitute.
Thank you for responding…..
Hi gayathri!
Thnx for ur prompt reply.To get a lighter loaf as u got on ur second attempt ,should we proof the dough on the counter (as u’ve mentioned in the procedure)or in the fridge(according to ur conclusion for a lighter loaf)?will it take long time inside d fridge to proof d dough?pls bear wid me for my long query.
Proof it in the fridge Samu Fathima. After the kneading, place in a bowl, oil the dough and cover the bowl with cling wrap. Keep it for a mininimum of eight hours. Then remove and let it come to room temp. Now shape it, arrange it in the tin, cover with cling wrap and place it in fridge for another 8 hours. Then remove from fridge and let it sit on counter for 2-3 hours. Then bake. This is quite a slow process but it will surely give a nice texture..
that looks awesome Gayathri… perfect texture and looks so soft!
Gayathri, the loaf looks amazing..I want to try this sometime..so will come back and check..so glad it worked for you!
What is vital wheat gluten? Can we replace it or skip it with any other thing? TIA
Gluten development in bread dough results in amazing breads. If using maida, gluten is there in the flour itself but in wheat flour it is less. That is why we end up with denser breads while using wheat flour. So to overcome that, we add some gluten in form of powder which helps to get a lighter bread. If you don’t get it just skip it.
The second trial was amazing and very well baked,love the texture of the bread..it has got a very nice crust..kudos to your patience..
Definitely worth to try, eventhough the process sounds bit long, the bread came out simply awesome.. My kind of bread..
Wow Gayathri. Loved your detailed explanation. Very nice
I am glad the recipe finally worked out for you.
Awesome bread with great texture.. Crust looks so tempting Gayathri!!
I liked this post coz it showed me how to shape a loaf :-)) and yes, wholewheat bread is always welcome at my place.. bookmarking this ,Gayathri
Well baked bread, love the crust.
Amazing bread. I am drooling.in fact I better stop looking at your bakes else my tummy is going to forget I have had dinner. bookmaking
Love your approach to baking 🙂 I would have been so tensed if I lost power when baking. The bread looks so good and I love Peter’s recipes 🙂
Hi ,Gayathri,
Your whole wheat bread looks so yummy n tempting ,I’d love to try it . But here in India where will I get the Vital Wheat Gluten ? Plz guide me , I stay in Pune.
Thanks.
Farah, you can buy it online..
Another success thanks to your detailed recipe, only variation was I had to cover with foil for the last 10 mins to stop it from over browning. This is the third bread recipe I have made with great results. Many thanks
Hi Gayathri,
I am so happy to have bumped in to your blogspot. 🙂 I am trying your whole wheat bread this weekend. However I do not have one ingredient – Vital Wheat Gluten. Still I am trying and it is now in my fridge for the second proofing. One observation from my side was that my dough was not so tough as what u have shown in the pics here to roll it. I was more guey n soft and I just could not roll it to shape but had to pull it all together in a kinda log shape and toss into the loaf tin. What could be the reason. All measurements I have used as u have mentioned here minus the wheat gluten as i do not have that stuff and have no clue abt it as well. Tonight I will bake the bread and shall keep you updated on how it turned out.
Many Thanks,
Nithya Iyer.
Different flours absorb different quantities of water. I think the flour you have used absorbs little. You can just add extra flour and knead. No problem with that. And vital wheat gluten is just optional.
Hello mam. Just had a doubt. If we want to make two loafs,then we have to double all the quantities? Even the poolish and the soaker?
You double all the ingredients.
Hi Gayathri.. Indeed a superb recipe.. I wanted to know ,, like u said without gluten the whole wheat bread would turn dense .. Then is there any other ingredient possible can be added to get a lighter bread without adding gluten
I am sorry, I have no idea about any other ingredients..
Hi Gayatri. Thank you for sharing this detailed recipe. Just finished baking my bread. Can’t wait to slice it. …. Once again thank you
How to use active yeast in this recipe pls?
Take 1/4 cup of water from the recipe, heat it until lukewarm. Add the yeast, a teaspoon of sugar and set aside for 10 minutes. Then add it to the dough.
Can I omit honey in this recipe?
Yes, you can omit the honey but add a little sugar. It helps with the yeast.
Thank you for all the recipes I have tried the Naan and bread recipes and they were perfect
Thank you so much for trying!
Followed your recipe exactly except for oven temp. Got superb bread. So soft and yummy. The smell of bread was wafting through the whole house in the last 10 min of baking. Heavenly. Thank you so much for the detailed steps and pictures.
That is amazing. Thank you so much for trying and sharing your feedback.
Hi Gayatri mam, I always follow your recipe thanks…I want to try this whole wheat bread…can you tell me what is your cup size?? Mine is 250ml ,is it ok if I take that measurement?? Is gluten necessary for this recipe can I make it without it?? My bread tin size is 8″×4″×4″. Do I need to make two loaf?? Did you use room temperature curd??
Mine is a 200 ml cup. For one cup, flour measures 120 gm. Please calculate accordingly. For 8″ tin, you will have extra dough, just like mine. Also gluten is really important in this recipe. Otherwise you end up with a dense bread.
Hello mam, whats the difference between soaker n poolish,, why both r used.. Plz explain. I have tried so many breads n pav recipes from ur blog.. Alk r awsm.. One more querry mam in ur wheat bun recipe u say that only 3 to 4 min kneeding is sufficient for wheat breads.. But in this 10 to 15 min kneeding is required.. Just want to understand the theory behind that…
When we add vital wheat gluten, we can knead the bread dough for a long time. But my other recipe is without gluten, so it is not necessary to knead it for a long time. Soaker is the mix that doesn’t have yeast in it and is allowed to ferment overnight at room temperature. Poolish is like starter. It has yeast in it and is not set at room temperature. It is slowly fermented in fridge. They both work as leavening in the recipe. The more the soaking time, softer the whole wheat bread will be.
Thank u so much mam.
Hello Gayathri, I went through the blog. Thank you for the detailed explanation for each bread loaves. I have question on Whole Wheat Bread loaf.. I believe you had used the normal wheat flour that is used for making chapatis. And that is the reason the wheat gluten was needed.
What if I use the whole wheat bread flour which already has gluten in it,
– Would I need the gluten to be added?
– Also, do I need to follow the soaker and Poolish method?
– Lastly, what is the purpose of adding the baking soda? Is it okay to add “Eno”?
Thank you so much. If using whole wheat bread flour, you don’t have to add gluten. But the poolish and pre ferment adds so much softness and lightness to breads. So better not skip it. Baking soda and curd is added as an egg substitute.
Hi Gayathri, as always i love your detailed explanation . Just a query ,will this bread take almost an hr to bake?
Thank you. The baking time differs with the size of the bread. A regular 8″ loaf will take 30-35 minutes to bake.
Hello Mam.
Do we have to add 1/2 Tablespoon of Instant yeast in dough, won’t it be too much?
Looking forward for your response.
Thanks
1/2 tablespoon is 1.5 tsp. It is not much for the amount of flour used.
Hi Gayathri.. Thankyou for ur amazing recipe with all the detailings…Is it ok to replace wheat gluten with psyllium husk.. Just let me know so that I can give it a try!!
Thank you so much. I am really not sure how good the husk will be as a substitute for gluten.
Can I use stand mixer to knead the dough? Thanks
Yes, you can.
Thank you so much for the prompt reply 🙂