Grocery prices just keep rising and we’re all feeling it, so I decided to revisit some of my old bread recipes. Because if there ever was a time to learn how to make homemade bread, it’s now! It only takes a couple of dollars to make this super delish homemade honey wheat bread that is soft, fluffy, flavorful, and perfect for toast or sandwiches. And while it does take some time to make a loaf of bread, most of that is hands-off time that you can use to tend to other business. ;)
What’s in Honey Wheat Bread?
This recipe starts with the basic yeast bread ingredients: flour, salt, and yeast. Then I added a little honey to give the bread just a hint of sweetness and a little olive oil which helps keep the bread (and the crust in particular) nice and soft. I’ve used a combination of whole wheat and all-purpose flour for this bread to keep the texture light and fluffy.
Can I use All Whole Wheat Flour?
While you can make bread with 100% whole wheat flour instead of a mix of white and wheat, that tends to produce heavier, dense bread. Whole wheat flour absorbs more moisture than all-purpose flour, so you may need to adjust the ratios in this bread slightly. I find that for the best texture, a 50/50 mix of whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour produces the best results.
How to Store Homemade Bread
It’s very important to let homemade bread cool completely to room temperature before storing to prevent trapping steam and creating condensation. Homemade bread doesn’t contain preservatives like store-bought bread, so you’ll need to either consume the bread quickly or freeze it for longer storage. (Or make bread pudding with the leftovers!)
If storing your bread at room temperature, wrap the bread in cloth or paper to allow just enough airflow to prevent moisture build-up. Homemade bread will last about 2-3 days stored at room temperature.
If storing in the refrigerator, keep the bread in an air-tight container. This is my preferred method because I don’t usually eat bread that quickly. Bread stored in the refrigerator will stay good for about 5-6 days.
If you need to store your bread for longer, freeze it. I suggest slicing the bread prior to freezing so you can thaw or use 1-2 slices at a time as needed without thawing the entire loaf. I often toast my slices straight from the freezer for convenience! Make sure to freeze the bread in an air-tight, heavy-duty, freezer-safe container (like a freezer bag).
New to making homemade bread? Try our super easy No-Knead Bread!
Honey Wheat Bread
Servings 12 slicesIngredients
- 1.25 cup warm water ($0)
- 2 tsp active dry yeast or instant yeast ($0.34)
- 2 Tbsp honey ($0.50)
- 3 Tbsp olive oil ($0.36)
- 1.5 cups whole wheat flour* ($0.57)
- 1.5 cups all-purpose flour* ($0.38)
- 1/2 Tbsp salt ($0.05)
Instructions
- Stir the yeast and 1 Tbsp of the honey into the warm water until dissolved, then set it aside for about five minutes to allow the yeast to activate. A thick layer of foam should develop on the surface of the water.
- While waiting for the yeast to bloom, stir together 1 cup of the whole wheat flour with the salt.
- Once the yeast is foamy, add the rest of the honey (1 Tbsp) and the olive oil and stir to combine. Pour the yeast water into the bowl with the flour and salt, then stir until combined. Add ½ cup more of whole wheat flour and stir until combined again.
- Now start adding all-purpose flour, ½ cup at a time, until you can no longer stir the dough with a spoon. At that point, turn the dough out onto a floured surface and begin to knead all-purpose flour into the dough, a little at a time.
- Knead the dough for about five minutes, slowly adding flour as you knead, or until the dough no longer sticks to your hands, but is still fairly pliable. I used 1.5 cups all-purpose flour total, but the total flour amount will vary with the type of flour used and relative humidity in the room.
- Place the kneaded dough back into the mixing bowl and cover with a cloth. Let the dough rise at room temperature for about an hour, or until it has doubled in size.
- Lightly coat a bread pan with oil. Punch the dough down to deflate, then take the dough out of the bowl. Shape the dough into a log about the same length of your bread pan.
- Place the shaped dough in the bread pan and let it rise for anohter hour, or until it has risen about 2-inches above the edges of the bread pan.
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Once fully preheated, add the risen bread and bake for 30 minutes, or until the bread is deeply golden brown and it sounds hollow when tapped.
- Remove the bread from the oven and let it cool just a few minutes (to make it easier to handle), then carefully remove the bread from the pan to fully cool.
- Once cool, slice and serve your delicious homemade bread!
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
Notes
Nutrition
How to Make Honey Wheat Bread – Step By Step Photos
Start by dissolving 1 Tbsp honey and 2 tsp instant yeast or active dry yeast in 1.25 cups of warm water. Set the mixture aside to allow the yeast to bloom. It should develop a thick layer of foam on the surface.
While waiting for the yeast to bloom, add 1 cup whole wheat flour to a bowl with ½ Tbsp salt and stir to combine.
Once the yeast has bloomed, stir another 1 Tbsp honey and 3 Tbsp olive oil into the yeast water, then pour that mixture into the bowl with the flour and salt. Stir to combine.
Stir another ½ cup of whole wheat flour into the dough.
Now start adding in all-purpose flour, ½ cup at a time until you can no longer stir the dough with a spoon.
When a shaggy ball of dough forms that can no longer be stirred with a spoon, it’s time to turn the dough out onto a floured surface to knead.
Begin kneading in more all-purpose flour a little at a time. Knead for about five minutes, or until the dough no longer sticks to your hands, but is still pliable. I used about 1.5 cups all-purpose flour in total, but the total flour amount can vary depending on the type of flour used and the relative humidity in the room.
Place the kneaded dough back into the mixing bowl and cover it with a towel. Let the dough rise at room temperature for one hour, or until doubled in size.
Once doubled in size, punch the dough down to deflate. Remove the dough from the bowl and shape it into a log the same length as your bread pan.
Lightly coat a bread pan with olive oil then place the shaped dough inside. Let the bread rise for another hour, or until it has risen about two inches above the top of the bread pan.
Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Once the bread has risen, transfer the bread to the oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until the crust is deeply brown and sounds hollow when tapped.
After 30 minutes, remove the bread from the oven. Let it cool for just a few minutes to make it easier to handle, then carefully remove it from the bread pan to finish cooling.
Once cooled, slice and serve the bread, or store it for later!
I also use to eat honey with bread instead of jam. Thanks for this recipe.
Solid recipe. I doubled it but otherwise followed it as written, and the loaves came out really nicely. I’m not a total yeast novice, but this is a recipe that most should be able to follow with results as pictured.
If I wanted to throw in some seeds/grains for texture would that affect the bake time? Or necessitate any other changes?
It’s easy to give this recipe 5 stars.
The directions are well-written and easy to follow, and the results are fantastic: A delicious soft bread that smells great and is excellent for toast or sandwiches. It will be part of my go-to rotation of reliable bread recipes that I’ll be happy to serve to guests.
I even made a slight error – I used 2 tablespoons of yeast instead of 2 teaspoons, because I was too lazy to grab my reading glasses when looking at the list of ingredients – but the dough rose nicely and the texture of the bread was wonderful.
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This was my first visit to your web site, and now I’m looking forward to checking out your other recipes. Thanks so much for making a tremendous first impression!
Why bloom if using instant yeast. Does it matter which yeast is used?
Since we gave the option to use either, we included that step just in case you’re not using instant! But you’re welcome to skip if you’re comfortable!
I’ve used this bread recipe for years, and since then I’ve gone on to grow my baking skills and discover new bread recipes – but this is the one that I use every week. It is simple and efficient, that delivers excellent bread. I do substitute one tablespoon of all purpose white flour with 1 tablespoon of wheat gluten. But that’s a personal preference, you can absolutely make this recipe without any adjustments. This is a great recipe. I’ll probably continue to use it for the rest of my life.
Do you have any gluten free bread recipes? Also I just bought some sourdough starter, any sour dough bread recipes?I really liked the one bread recipe of yours that showed the breakdown of what each ingredient costs. Do you do that for all of your recipes? If not that would be great! I have always assumed and was recently told that making your own was a great deal cheaper than store bought. From your honey wheat recipe it looks like there really isn’t much of a savings, but then again, as I’m typing this I really can’t remember what I paid last time for a loaf of store bought honey wheat bread. Just got back into the bread making thing again after not doily it for sooo many years. I just bought a mixer with dough hook wisk and meringue paddle, hope it arrives soon! I remember years ago that I bought a bread maker machine. You just throw all the ingredients inside push the right buttons and it mixes them all, lets the yeast rise, punches it down and bakes it also! My first loaf was just fine except I didn’t realize that on the bottom of the machine was a dough hook and when I dumped the bread on my counter I didn’t realize that the dough had baked the bread completely covering the dough hook. So when I went to cut it my knife raked across it making me nearly freak out! I’m glad I discovered my mistake before I served it to my family!
Unfortunately, we don’t have any gluten-free bread recipes, but you should check out Mama Knows Gluten Free. We do a cost breakdown of almost all of our recipes, yes, and this bread is still roughly half of what store-bought would cost in our area, so I count that as a win! :)
Wow this bread was easy to make and it is sooooooo good!
Would bread flour work instead of all purpose?
Yes, that should work fine.
I’ve made this a handful of times (on a bit of a homemade bread kick), and my kids won’t eat anything else for sandwiches. I modified the recipe slightly by halving the yeast (cuts down on the yeast flavor a little and rise times are pretty much the same), and substituted 3 Tbsp of unsalted butter for the oil. Everything else is the same, and I score the top of the loaf before baking because the kids don’t think it’s bread unless it has that shape.
Perfect recipe! I use the dough cycle of my bread machine and bake it in the oven. This recipe also works beautifully when I add nuts, cinnamon, and raisins for a sweet breakfast bread or flaxseed, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds for a sandwich bread. The only recipe I use now.
It was amazingly delicious thank you for sharing! ❤️
I’ve made this bread about 5 times now and it is SO delicious and incredibly easy! A loaf doesn’t even last an entire 24 hours in my house.. I usually make sourdough but sourdough sandwich bread just isn’t a pillowy soft as yeast risen and this is now my go to for delicious sandwich bread 😋
I don’t remember ever making homemade bread but I haven’t been able to find a store bought bread that I like, so I decided to give it a try. This is so easy and delicious!! This is going to be my go to bread recipe.
What size bread pan do you use for this recipe? My apologies if I missed it.
Hi, Shola! We used a standard 9×5 (1.5-quart capacity) loaf pan. However, anything in that ballpark will work. If using a metal pan instead of glass, keep in mind that the outside of the loaf will cook slightly faster and you may see more browning than in our photos (but it will be equally yummy!). I have added the loaf pans we use to this recipe card (under Equipment) with a link to an Amazon page with more product info & ways to purchase. ~Marion :)
Delicious! This will be my new go-to bread recipe. I was a little skeptical since the dough was really wet and sticky – I had to add a full cup more flour than the recipe called for to get the right texture – but it turned out perfectly in the end!