Whole Wheat Bread Recipe
Updated: Dec 7, 2023
This whole wheat bread recipe is easy to make and produces wonderful, nutritious bread for your baby and the rest of the family too.
Sadly, too few of us make our own bread – we tell ourselves that we don’t have the time and it’s just too easy to go and buy a loaf from the store!
There’s also the misconception that it’s difficult to do, which stops many of us from even trying.
But it REALLY is worth having a go at making your own bread for your baby and for your family…
- As with all your homemade baby food, you’ll know EXACTLY what’s in it!
- Homemade bread tastes better than store bought. Period.
- The aroma of baking bread that will fill your house is truly delicious – and what a wonderful childhood memory to provide for your little one as he grows!
And bread-making really ISN’T as time consuming as you think – this whole wheat bread recipe involves perhaps 15 to 20 minutes of hands-on preparation time.
The rest of the time is spent waiting for the dough to rise, giving you plenty of opportunity to put your feet up and eat bonbons (!!).
The goodness of whole wheat flour
Whole wheat flour (known as wholemeal flour in some parts of the world) is made from whole wheat grains.
These grains still have their bran, endosperm and germ intact – these are the various layers that make up the grain and are packed with nutrients.
Unfortunately, the production of WHITE flour involves stripping the grains of two of these layers and – subsequently – many of these nutrients, leaving you with just the endosperm layer (the least nutritious of all!).
Clearly, then, it’s good to use whole wheat flour as often as you can when baking for your family.
But there’s one factor that deters many people from baking their bread with whole wheat flour alone – and that’s the resulting texture of the bread… it can be a little more dense than white bread.
On a personal level, we rather like that density, but for those of you who like your bread a little lighter, the whole wheat bread recipe below is absolutely perfect!
It combines whole wheat and white flours – and whilst we’ve used a 50/50 mixture here, feel free to experiment with it, upping the amount of whole wheat flour and reducing the amount of white until you find a combination you’re happy with.
The resulting bread is suitable for babies who are comfortable with finger foods…
We recommend waiting until your baby is coping well with the traditional ‘first’ finger foods like soft cooked veggies and fruit before offering bread.
In our experience, bread is a little more difficult to manage – our younger babies would sometimes end up with a doughy lump in their mouths that would cause them to gag.
To avoid this, we find it better to offer bread toasted at first – it can stand up to the ‘gnawing’ far better!
Once you see that your baby is coping with it well, then you can move on to the UNtoasted variety.
Whole wheat bread recipe
This recipe makes two small and delicious loaves!
3 cups whole wheat (wholemeal) flour*
3 cups white (all purpose/plain) flour*
1 level tbsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 cups (12 fl oz) water
1 tbsp olive oil
2 level tsp dried yeast (we use Fleischmann’s)
*The total quantity of flour used is around 1 1/2lbs – as we explained above, you can change the proportions of white flour to whole wheat to suit your family.
- Gently heat the water until tepid (around 110 deg F).
- Add the sugar to the warm water and stir until dissolved. Then sprinkle the yeast on top.
- Set aside until the mixture is frothy (around 10 mins).
- Mix the flour with the salt in a large bowl and make a well in the center. Pour in the olive oil.
- When the yeast mixture is ready, pour that in too, then begin mixing everything together.
- Work the mixture into a firm dough, making sure that the sides of the bowl are clean. Add a little warm water if necessary to bring the mixture together.
- Lightly flour a work surface and turn the dough out on to it. Knead the dough for 10 minutes (don’t cheat – the time spent kneading is important to the finished result).
- Grease a large bowl, place the dough inside, cover with a clean tea towel and place in a warm place for at least an hour, until the dough has doubled in size. (Yay – it’s time for the bonbons!)
- Once the dough has risen, turn it back out on to the floured surface, punch the air out of it and knead it for a minute more.
- Grease 2 1lb loaf tins, divide the dough in half, stretch each piece out to a shape that more or less fits the tin and put it in.
- Cover with plastic wrap and leave it to rise for about 45 mins.
- Preheat the oven to 375 deg F (180 deg C).
- Remove the plastic wrap and put the tins in the oven. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes until golden (tap the bottom of the tin to check for ‘done-ness – it should sound hollow).
- Cool on a wire rack then serve to your appreciative family!
We hope you and your baby enjoy our whole wheat bread recipe – a tasty way to enjoy healthy whole grains!
More ideas when baking for baby…
