Whole Wheat Milk Bread
Indians are not big on eating bread - at least the ones I know of. Having toast in the morning was (note the "was") not a regular affair. My mother had this sandwich maker which she got from some exhibition in Delhi but which she rarely used. I dunno if she still has it, but I was its fan. Many a times when my mother was busy and I had to prepare my own lunch, I used to take the maker, place two slices at both ends, dump (..and I literally mean it) with whatever I could get my hands on and make sandwich with it. I used to feel pretty proud of it too - although my dad till date teases me with the "supposed fillings" i used to have inside them and very 'graciously' stayed away from them!
Whole Wheat Milk Bread
Anyways, on the rare cases when we did buy bread - my mother to keep it healthy used to avoid the white bread and go for 'Brown bread'. It was called that and it was whole wheat bread. If you eat that, you will realize why most people avoid wheat breads. It was bad! A complete 'blech'. I used to accuse my mom of depriving me of my happiness of eating breads by buying these and she used to patiently explain that 'unfortunately healthy dishes are sometimes bad- you have to put up with them!". But then Baking is not common in India - so making your own bread (a brown bread at that!) cannot be thought of. All these thoughts brimming on my mind on this Father's day, I ended up making sandwiches - but with fillings my father wouldn't be able to stay away from :) I made them with these Whole Wheat Bread (or should I say "Brown Bread") in remembrance of my mom's healthy cause. Hope this post reminds them of all those memories just the way it did for me. Now to the recipe. If you are not fan of whole wheat bread because they are dense and heavy then you should try this one. Its spongy, light and delicious. I got this recipe from this Master Baker I ever knew.
  • Cook time:
  • Prep time:
  • Yields: Makes two 9X5 inch loaves
Ingredients
  • 2 cups lukewarm whole milk
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 2 tsp active dry yeast
  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • 6 cups stone ground whole wheat flour
  • 2-1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2 tbsp butter, unsalted
Method
1. Mix honey and milk together. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Take a large bowl and mix flour and salt together.
2. Make a well in the flour and pour the milk and yeast mixture into it.
3. Mix to make a stiff dough.
4. Knead vigorously without adding any flour until the dough becomes soft and elastic. Use the second 1/2 of water for this. Dont add more water until really necessary. Now knead in butter bits until well incorporated.
5. Mostly by this time your hands would be screaming to come out of your shoulder sockets - so catch your breath and relax for 2 minutes. Form the dough into a ball and place in a clean bowl.
6. Cover with a plastic wrap and let it rise. Takes about 2 hours. Update : When I say rise, I dint mean that it would rise like how all-purpose flour with yeast does normally. It will puff up little. Try to make an indentation to the dough with your wet finger 1/2 inch deep. If the dough sighs or does not spring back then it is ready. I am used to working with wheat flour, hence failed to mention this piece of information.
7. Now knead it for few more minutes and let it rise again. Take just half the time than the previous.Now divide the dough into 2 and shape them into loaves/or any shapes you like. I made one and seeing me shape the bread,
8. the interest of my better half got piqued and so he shaped the other one.
9. The good looking one is mine though ;)
10. Bake them in a preheated 350F oven for 40 - 45 min or until done.
11. Cool it and then slice it.
12. We finished half of "his" loaf the very same day
for our evening tea Whole Wheat Milk Bread with some home made apricot preserve. Whole Wheat Milk Bread

Leave a Reply

I love to hear from you! I read each and every comment, and will get back as soon as I am able to.
Did you try this recipe? Please share your feedback!
Upload Your Recipe Photos

6 Member Reviews

Recipe Image

By Anne on May 28, 2014

I halved the recipe since we already had Ezekiel bread in the fridge and we don't eat much bread around here and I probably should have baked it longer (I was deathly afraid of burning it),but it was delicious!! Everyone in my family loved it and I'll definitely be making it all the time, I'm about to make a loaf for a friend that's coming into town! Love this recipe so much!!

Recipe Image

By Pallavi on Jan 28, 2013

This was my first attempt to any yeast bread and it came out awesome. I regret why I have been eating store brought breads till date. I should have tried this before. Thank you so much DK for perfect receipe. 

Read All 6 Reviews →

58 Comments

By Gita K Raman on Dec 10, 2018

Can I bake in a microwave oven? If so please give me the know how.

By vidhya on Feb 4, 2016

Hi DK, 2tsp yeast is it 1 packet?

By Loretta on Jul 11, 2014

Loved the bread. Terrific. Took the tip and lowered the oven temperature. tks

By deepti on Jun 14, 2014

Hi came across your bread it's quite simple and worth trying ...but b4 tht Compared to many other recipes I went thru,,in most of them,for wheat bread to rise they hv mentioned to add vital wheat gluten?which I hv never heard of n I don't think we get it here,,is it really imp to add this ingredient? If yes then wats the substitute?plus can't we add a normal whole wheat flour instead of stone milled?please help,,, thankyou

By Srilatha on Sep 16, 2013

Hi DK, I love your recipes and most of the time, I get it right, but I completely messed up with the bread. As RJ commented earlier, mine was burnt on the outside and not completely cooked inside. Also it was hard as a rock. I have prestige OTG, and I baked it for 35 mins on 250F. I used Annapurna multigrain ata. The rest I followed as per recipe. Where do you think I went wrong?

By Johann on May 21, 2013

We would also like to know how to bake this bread in Convection oven.

By Priya Kumar on Apr 18, 2013

Should the second rise be after shaping the loaves?

By tahiba on Apr 15, 2013

is there no rise after shaping them into loaves ? do we have to directly bake it ? Thanks

By tahiba on Apr 15, 2013

is there no rise after shaping them into loaves ? Thanks.

By Suku on Mar 19, 2013

Hi, I loved this easy to make recipe,and my bread looked exactly as shown in the picture(all porous), was cooked but somehow the bread was hard to slice, though the inner was soft but after 30 min, when I left it to cool the bread became hard as stone. I would appreciate if you have some suggestion, as I would like to try this again. ( I did not have stone ground, but used chapatti atta instead. Though I kneaded well as suggested, I did see that my dough was smooth and even, but saw some cracks inspite of the dough being elastic-Hope I have given proper clues in case if you have suggestions) Thank you Cheers SUKU

By Anubha on Oct 10, 2012

Hi dk - for some reason I had to keep the dough (after kneeding it the first time) in the fridge overnight. Will it be ok to use it the next day. Pls let me know

I think you can store any kind of yeasted dough in the fridge for upto 5 days but given that this one contains milk, I would keep to less than 2 days --DK

By Geetha Venkat on Aug 25, 2012

Hi DK, What is 6 stone cup means? Does it mean the Stoneware soup bowl or is it something else? Do let me know the exact measurements..

I have said 6 cups..not 6 stone cups. So just use regular 6 cups --DK

By Divya on Apr 30, 2012

super will be trying it out tomorrows breakfast !

By sadaf on Mar 15, 2012

hello i wanted to know pav (dinnig roll) how long it will take to double.

By vineeta on Feb 26, 2012

dk can i avoid honey???? nowdays m avoiding sugar as much as possible....plz let me know i want to make this bread for my sandwiches.......

By ASHISH on Jan 19, 2012

CAN I MAKE LOAF IN MY LG MICROWAVE ,

By Akhila H on Dec 17, 2011

Hi, I have a doubt, Can I make this on my microwave, convection mode. What material baking tray to use? The microwave came with a baking tray that I use to bake cookies in the convection mode. Can I use that only? Thanks

By Kitty on Nov 20, 2011

Hi again! Was curious how you might incorporate this into a bread maker?

By Thamarai on Oct 27, 2011

Hi DK, am trying to go vegan. Will almond milk work in place of dairy milk?

By Allana on May 24, 2011

What happens if I use skim milk?

By praseeda on Nov 26, 2010

hi divya..i love all your recipes....i am goin to try millet upma....

By zankhana on Nov 10, 2010

hii ...ur site and recipes sound gr8. i was looking for a whole wheat bread recipe. this is a nice one. but can you tell me if i can substitute honey?my husband doesnt like it. we are vegetarians and dont eat eggs too. is there any way of making vegan wheat bread :).

By Preeti Panattu on Nov 10, 2010

Hello! Came by your site, tried this wholewheat bread recipe (doing a bread for the first time ever, though am quite a seasoned cake baker) and the results were perfect, spot on!! thank you, I have been going through many of the recipes you've posted and intend to try them :-D . you got great stuff here, am going to be a regular visitor! Thanks and best regards!! Preeti

By sanc on Jul 22, 2010

Hi Divya, I have Annapurna Atta. The label reads 100% whole wheat, No maida. Can i use it to make this bread? If possible to then can i substitute 1 cup with wheat bran?

I dont see why it wont work. :) --DK

By RJ on Jul 7, 2010

Hi DK, I tried this recipe a few days back but failed miserably. Somehow, whenever I try to bake bread loaves, the bread becomes very hard on top and is uncooked in the centre. I had to throw away the whole thing. :( I know I did the dough right, it rose well as well. But I am lacking something while baking it. Not sure if its my oven.

I think its the Oven. Never take the Oven temperature from other online sites as foolproof since every oven is different. From the sound of it, it seems to me that your oven heats up pretty fast and is more hot than the norm. So its cooking the outside faster than it does on the insides. My Oven is the same. if a recipe mentions 350F I always set it to 300F since at 350F it will be way hotter for me and my outside will burn first before cooking the inside. Lower the temperature for your baking and see....

By Vibha Sachdev on May 30, 2010

Hi DK! I live in New Delhi and can so relate to that...Even though there are more that are called Whole Wheat, I don't think they are too much better than when there were only Brown breads. But I didn't know it was THis easy to make bread at home! I also want to add here that I have been following ChefInYou on Facebook for some months now, though I'm yet to try making anything! I hugely admire your effort and patience to respond to every comment/query on FB and come up with something exciting all the time! I also think you are doing a great job of furthering the cause of healthy eating! All the very best!! Cheers! Vibha

By Gayathri on Apr 22, 2010

Hey DK, I love baking, baking bread especially is my fav. I got to know about your website from Facebook just a few days back. I have been going thru it everytime I am at my comp :) Great site. Have been looking for a recipe of whole wheat bread, I tried this recipe today, my kids (aged 4.5 and 2.5) and my hubby have loved it, they can't seem to get enough :) Thank you for the recipe. p.s : I made a few modifications to the recipe, whole wheat atta I use is premixed with soya flour so my bread came out a bit dense. I used olive oil in place of butter (I did use very little butter too!)

By Ambika on Mar 7, 2010

Hey DK, I tried this recipe, with the Durum Wheat flour (with bran) and it turned out awesome!! Thanks :) I made this sandwich using this bread - http://ambikaskitchen.blogspot.com/2010/03/roasted-curry-pumpkin-sandwich-with.html

By Samantha on Nov 14, 2009

This was also my first time baking bread, and with this recipe it turned out absolutely wonderful. Thank you so much! @Vini: Yes, it only takes about 30-35 minutes to cook. You should lightly spray the pan you're cooking it in with cooking spray. This isn't necessary, but I do it just in case. @Vy: Yes, I used reduced fat milk.

By vini on Sep 3, 2009

Hi, I tried this recipe..It was my first bread bake.Thanks..It turned out good..It jus got little burnt on the bottom.I guess i baked it a little longer than required..Should i grease the baking tray or dust it with flour. Thanks in advance

By vy on Aug 13, 2009

Hi, This bread looks great! Is it possible to substitute skim or fat-free milk for whole milk here? I'm thinking of making this for my dad who needs some healthy foods in the house. Thanks Vy. I think you can - I havent personally tried it myself - the original recipe does not say Not to - so guess it should work :) - DK

By zainab on Jul 2, 2009

interesting recipe !! Your loaf looks fantastic .. :)

By Steve2 in LA on Jun 27, 2009

Well, I tried this recipe today and everything went swimmingly until I formed the loaves and baked. I used loaf pans because I wanted that particular shape. While the oven was preheating, I let the dough rise one last time in the pan for about 30 minutes. While it rose during that time, it rose very little during the baking. I think, the end product would benefit from a full third rise until the dough reaches the tops of a pan or doubles again. Of course, that's just me. Thanks for the recipe.

By ashwini on Jun 26, 2009

Hi DK, wanted to tell you how it went. I think the yeast was a little less for my flour because it dint rise after 2 hours( I think it must have something to do with the wheat bran) I added more yeast solution and left it overnight. It came out fantastic. Very soft and yummy. Thank you so much for your lovely recipe. Will be trying your other baked goodies too .. :-)

By Haley J. on Jun 26, 2009

What beautiful, soft looking bread! This looks like it would be great in sandwiches or as a snack.

By Spitzvogel on Jun 26, 2009

I am going to make this bread this weekend - it looks great! What do I do with the second 1/2 cup of water in the recipe? Thank you! Thanks Spitzvogel :) The second 1/2 is to help knead the dough

By CurryLeaf on Jun 26, 2009

WOW,Lovely.You are on a baking spree what with 2 bread posts back to back.Keep it going .I also agree with Susan-H&H loaves ;)

By Nancy/n.o.e on Jun 26, 2009

I love the way this loaf looks and sounds! Just beautiful. I have one question: it looks like 2 rises before shaping. I assume you let it rise again after shaping and before baking? Or not?? Thanks! Thanks Nancy :) The rising is before shaping - Rise it first time - then knead it again for few minutes and then again let it rise - this time it will only rise v slightly. Shape and then bake

By Susan/Wild Yeast on Jun 25, 2009

I love the His and Hers loaves!

By Mansi on Jun 25, 2009

Man, that looks beautiful DK! I don't know if I'd ever bake a bread regularly at home, but I sure wish you lived closer to my home!:)

By Cynthia on Jun 24, 2009

I really like the crumb of this bread. It looks hearty and filling.

By Vidya on Jun 24, 2009

Lovely bread. Thanks a bunch for sharing.

By Ramya Kiran on Jun 24, 2009

Recipe looks perfect! Moreover healthy. I've another good whole wheat bread recipe, will share that one soon.

By Parita on Jun 24, 2009

You make this look so simple and easy, I am skeptical of trying breads though want to try some from a very very long time..

By Happy Cook on Jun 23, 2009

I agree with you we only had read back home when mom didn't had time or when we were sick. It was a shock to me when i saw everyone having bread twice a day here. But now i got used and we do the same too. Bread looks beautiful.

By Priya on Jun 23, 2009

Wow bread looks fabulous DK...Will give a try soon! since i love baking my breads at home..

By Lubna Karim on Jun 23, 2009

Oh wow awesome, perfect and yum bread.....

By Good Recipes » Blog Archive » Whole wheat Bread Recipe | Healthy Whole Wheat Milk Bread | Chef … on Jun 23, 2009

[...] thecatcancook wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIndians are not big on eating bread – at least the ones I know of. Having toast in the morning was (note the was) not a regular affair. My mother had this. [...]

By Arundathi on Jun 23, 2009

Looks so soft and delicious - yes, nothing like the whole wheat breads we get even now in India. But you'll know soon enough when you move back ;)

By Sadhana on Jun 23, 2009

Yummy and healthy whole wheat bread. Love the color of your apricot preserve .

By Whole wheat Bread Recipe | Healthy Whole Wheat Milk Bread | Chef … - Free Recipes on Jun 23, 2009

[...] bhajifried wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIndians are not big on eating bread – at least the ones I know of. Having toast in the morning was (note the was) not a regular affair. My mother had this. [...]

By Whole wheat Bread Recipe | Healthy Whole Wheat Milk Bread | Chef … | India today on Jun 23, 2009

[...] Original post: Whole wheat Bread Recipe | Healthy Whole Wheat Milk Bread | Chef … [...]

By prathibha on Jun 23, 2009

That is so perfectly baked......loved each slice of that bread..

By Pavani on Jun 23, 2009

I'm going to make a bread this weekend. I think I'm motivated enough now. Hopefully I'm motivated till the weekend. Thanks for the recipe DK.

By Madhuram on Jun 23, 2009

I don't know why I'm postponing to bake yeast breads yet? You make it look so simple. They are indeed madhu - you shud try it :) But then is there anything called difficult?

By Divya Vikram on Jun 23, 2009

I have not been baking breads for a while. Your post tempts me to bake one. Looks too good Dhiv.

By Kalai on Jun 23, 2009

Absolutely awesome bread, Dhivi! Like you, I adore bread in just about any avatar. Both loaves look great and kudos to your husband for such a nice first attempt! :) Technically this is his first, but actually seeing his second. His first attempt at baking a bread was also my first. I had that recipe in the blog but which got deleted somehow - will be posting it soon :)

By ashwini on Jun 23, 2009

Hi .. Looks so lovely. I was thinking about baking tomorrow and this recipe arrives in the mail! I have a Pillsbury 100% durum wheat flour with wheat bran which is what I use for making chappatis. The dough from this mix is kind of like the maida dough. Do you think it can replace stone ground wheat flour? Thanks for the lovely recipe, been looking for the right one since a long time and along came this one!! I had tried your stuffed brinjals and it came out Soooooper !! You can use 100% wheat durum flour, but do make sure of the case that the flour which is almost like a Maida flour could have a large amount of maida flour too. I find that most the Indian attas which comes out super duper soft actually have ground the wheat flour so much that it has become almost a maida flour. Thanks a bunch for the update and your generous compliments. I am honoured and hope this one is liked by you as well when you try it tomorrow :)