Wholemeal bread recipes
In Britain, wholemeal bread is made with flour milled from 100% of the grain, though in other countries the term usually refers to bread made with predominantly 100% wholemeal flour. Typical ingredients include wheat flour, water, salt and yeast.
Wholemeal bread does not rise quite as much as a white loaf, and the texture is denser due to the bran in the flour inhibiting the effectiveness of the gluten. Adding a little strong white flour into a mainly wholemeal dough mix is a clever way to add more ‘spring’ to the loaf.
You will need a 900g/2lb loaf tin to make this recipe.
More wholemeal bread recipes
Buyer's guide
When made with traditionally milled flour, it’s normal for wholemeal bread to be significantly heavier and denser than white bread, and for many this is part of the appeal. Wholemeal flour contains less gluten than white flour simply because the weight is also made up of other matter such as bran and wheat-germ. For this reason, it’s usual for wholemeal bread to be slightly crumbly when cut. New milling techniques and a wider choice of grain varieties means that millers are now able to produce wholemeal flour that behaves more like white flour but still contains 100% of the fibre and nutrients. However, traditionalists prefer wholemeal bread made with stone-ground flour.
