Whole Wheat Flour Quick Bread Recipes

This easy Whole Wheat Bread is perfect for sandwiches, toast, or just enjoying with some softened butter. You will love this soft homemade bread recipe!

This whole wheat bread recipe is perfect for beginning bread bakers. The method for making the bread dough is simple and easy to follow. Don’t be intimidated by baking with yeast, I promise the steps are really easy!

How

I used to make a more complicated homemade wheat bread recipe, but it called for ingredients that I don’t usually keep on hand in my kitchen. My goal with this recipe was to use simple, wholesome ingredients, so you won’t have to buy anything special just for this recipe. The only ingredients that you’ll need to make this whole wheat bread from scratch are whole wheat flour, honey, yeast, butter, milk, salt and water.

Wheat Bread Recipe

This healthy whole wheat bread has the best flavor, with a touch of honey. The bread is incredibly soft, and I can never resist eating a slice warm from the oven. Once you try it, I’m sure you’ll agree that this is the best whole wheat bread recipe!

Below I’ve also included instructions for how to make this bread with all-purpose flour or bread flour. Whichever you choose, you will have a delicious loaf of bread to use for sandwiches or to serve with dinner. I highly recommend spreading some butter and honey on a slice – it’s so delicious!

Here are some tips and answers to common questions about making this bread recipe. You will find the full recipe with ingredient amounts and instructions in the recipe card below.

Bake The Best Whole Wheat & Honey Bread

If you are using instant yeast, you can skip the proofing step and just mix all of the ingredients together in your mixer bowl. However, I almost always proof the yeast because it is a good way to tell if your yeast is active (which is necessary for bread to rise). Most yeast that is called active dry yeast (not instant or rapid-rise) needs to be proofed.

To proof yeast, you mix the yeast with the warm water, milk and honey. Let the mixture rest for 5 to 10 minutes. It should become somewhat foamy or bubbly, which means that your yeast are alive and active. If nothing happens after 10 minutes, your yeast may be dead and you should try again with new yeast.

When you are new to making bread, it can be hard to know how much flour to add. The amount listed in the recipe is a guide, and depending on your particular ingredients and baking conditions, you may need to add a little more flour.

Honey Whole Wheat Banana Bread

Start by adding 3 cups of flour when making this recipe. You may need to add up to 1/2 cup more flour if the dough is very sticky. The dough has enough flour when it is only slightly sticky to the touch. If a lot of dough sticks to your finger when you press it, add more flour, a tablespoon or two at a time, until the dough is only slightly sticky. Three cups to 3 1/4 cups of whole wheat flour is usually the perfect amount when I make this bread.

Knead the dough using your mixer’s dough hook for about 8 minutes. If you do not have a stand mixer, you can knead by hand, but you may need extra flour to keep the dough from sticking.

Stop the mixer every few minutes, as needed, and use a spatula to scrape the dough away from the sides of the bowl. After kneading, the dough will be a little sticky and very soft. It won’t hold its shape tightly in a ball, but should hold together when you transfer it to an oiled bowl using your hands or a spatula.

Healthy Banana Bread Recipe

This bread dough needs to rise twice, first in an oiled bowl and second in the bread pan. The first rise takes about an hour, until the dough doubles in size. The second rise is shorter, about 20 to 30 minutes. For the second rise, the dough is ready to go into the oven when the top is just above the top of the bread pan, as seen in the photo below.

Bread is done when the inside measures 190° F on an instant-read thermometer. This whole wheat bread takes 35 to 45 minutes to bake.

Easy

I tested this recipe with whole wheat flour, white whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour and bread flour. The homemade bread was delicious when made with each of these flours.

Whole Wheat Quick Bread Base Recipe

If you use white flour, either all-purpose or bread flour, you will need to use a little more flour to get a dough that is only slightly sticky. In my tests of this recipe, 3 1/2 cups was the perfect amount for all-purpose flour and bread flour, while 3 to 3 1/4 cups was the perfect amount for whole wheat flour. I recommend starting with 3 cups of whichever flour you choose, and then adding more flour, a little at a time, as needed.

To make dairy-free bread, replace the milk with water. Use oil instead of butter. I recommend olive oil or a neutral vegetable oil, such as canola oil.

I tested this recipe both in a 9 x 5-inch glass loaf pan and an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch metal bread pan. The bread will bake faster in a glass pan than in a metal pan. In the glass pan, my loaf took 37 minutes to bake. In the metal pan it took 43 minutes.

Whole Wheat Caramel Banana Bread

Homemade bread can be stored at room temperature for up to 3 days, wrapped airtight. If it is very warm in your kitchen, I recommend keeping the bread in your refrigerator.

This bread also freezes well. To freeze, cool completely and then slice. Freeze in an airtight container, such as a zip-top bag, for up to 3 months. The slices may stick together slightly when frozen, but you can use a bread knife to gently and easily separate them. Or, you can place a small piece of parchment paper between each slice.

Best

This easy Whole Wheat Bread is perfect for sandwiches, toast, or just enjoying with some softened butter. This bread is soft, with a touch of honey. See the recipe notes for how to use all-purpose flour or bread flour in this bread recipe.

How To Use Whole Wheat Flour In Quick Breads

Serving: 1 slice (1/12 loaf) , Calories: 153 kcal , Carbohydrates: 27 g , Protein: 5 g , Fat: 4 g , Saturated Fat: 2 g , Cholesterol: 8 mg , Sodium: 296 mg , Potassium: 137 mg , Fiber: 4 g , Sugar: 5 g , Vitamin A: 96 IU , Calcium: 17 mg , Iron: 1 mg

This site contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting Kristine's Kitchen!You know it's good for you. You've wanted to do it forever. And this time you're determined: you WILL learn how to use whole wheat flour. Like, how to substitute it for all-purpose flour in all of your favorite recipes. How to make baked treats that actually pass the family filter: they look good, taste good, and disappear quickly.

Thankfully, substituting whole wheat flour for all-purpose flour is actually quite easy in most recipes. And quick bread is a great place to start (think banana bread, zucchini bread, pumpkin bread, those breads where you simply stir together batter and pour it into a loaf pan).

Almond Flour Bread

What are the three potential main differences between a typical recipe made with all-purpose (white) flour, and one made with whole wheat flour? Flavor, color, and rise. Something made with whole wheat may taste wheatier; it may appear darker; and it may rise differently.

These differences are most apparent in recipes where flour is the chief ingredient: e.g., bread. Yeast bread is a prime example; many yeast breads are made simply from flour, water, yeast, and salt.

Whole

But compare yeast bread to quick bread, which along with its flour usually includes sugar, butter, eggs, and mix-ins like mashed fruit or chocolate chips or nuts. While it's starkly apparent which loaf of yeasted sandwich bread is 100% whole wheat and which is made from white flour, the difference is much less pronounced in, say, a rich, dark loaf of banana bread. Or even in a delicate lemon bread.

Best Whole Wheat Bread

Here are two loaves of Quick Lemon Bread ready to go into the oven. I'm using this recipe because it'll be easy to tell if there's any discernible difference between all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour versions. The bread is naturally light-colored, and its flavor (sans glaze) is very mildly lemon.

The loaf on the left is made with all-purpose flour; the one on the right with white whole wheat flour (which is the only whole wheat flour I use; more on that later).

But it's not an in-your-face difference; if you didn't have the side-by-side comparison with a white-flour loaf, you wouldn't necessarily know the loaf on the right is whole wheat.

Healthy Banana Bread Recipe Two Peas & Their Pod

What about flavor? The flavor of the whole wheat loaf is just slightly tannic: there's a tiny bite on the end as your taste buds interpret what you're