There are few smells that can send the kiddos scrambling to the kitchen like the smell of soaked whole wheat bread. The smell alone makes you feel like you’re in a bread shop or a fancy French Cafe.
This recipe will definitely not take you to France but it will make your house smell like the local bread shop and prompt the littles to run for the kitchen. I’m not going to lie here – this is still breadmaker bread, soaked whole wheat breadmaker bread…but it’s yummy toasted with raw honey. (I highly recommend baking in the oven after the breadmaker does the kneading work, but the recipe is still written for 100% bread machine if that makes life easier for you!)
Why Soak Whole Wheat?
I had an awful time finding a soaked whole wheat bread recipe online, so I made my own by adapting the standard whole wheat recipe in the bread machine book!
You might wonder: mushy bread? Soaked? That sounds too weird – why soak bread?
For the long and technical story on soaking grains, you’ll need to read this.
For now, the short of it is that soaking the flour takes the undigestible part of the grain and makes your body recognize it more like a vegetable. Not only that but it also maximizes the nutrients that are available in the grain so that your soaked whole wheat bread ultimately packs a healthier, more nutritious punch. If you are new to soaking grains, this is a great recipe to start with, especially with the added help of a breadmaker.
Get Some Tips on Bread-Making
If you’re new to bread-making, be sure to check out my basic bread making techniques. While it is not an exhaustive list, I have turned out quite a few tasty loaves using these tips. If you prefer a crustier loaf, you can bake this bread in the oven at 350F after you’ve run the the dough cycle on your bread machine.
Once you try this bread and love it, I think you’ll be surprised to find out how many tasty goodies you can soak. In no time, you’ll be soaking apple cinnamon oatmeal, pumpkin muffins, and granola bars too.
Print
Soaked 100% Whole Wheat Bread for Breadmaker/Bread Machine
- Yield: 1 1/2 lb loaf 1x
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cups water
- 1 Tbs + 1 tsp olive oil (use the code STEWARDSHIP for 10% off at that site!) or melted butter
- 3 Tbs honey
- 2 heaping Tbs yogurt or whey (or apple cider vinegar or lemon juice or cultured buttermilk)
- 3 cups whole wheat flour plus 1/4 c, divided
- 1 3/4 tsp active dry yeast
- 1 1/2 tsp salt (Use the code kitchenstewardship for 15% off of your first purchase)
Instructions
- Mix by hand the water, oil/butter, honey, yogurt, and 3 cups flour. You can do it right in the bread machine bucket/pan.
- Carefully make a mound of ¼ cup whole wheat flour on top of the wet ingredients. Make a well in the middle and add yeast and salt. The idea is not to let the yeast touch the wet ingredients. The salt will inhibit the breakdown of the phytates and enzyme inhibitors, so you want that mixed in last too.
- Soak overnight or longer at room temperature, then start the bread machine using the whole wheat cycle. If your machine has a delay timer, this is an easy soak and can be ready in the morning for breakfast.
Adapting a Breadmaker/Bread Machine Recipe for the Oven
Any loaf will gain improved taste and texture by baking in the oven. Enlist your breadmaker to reduce the work by following these steps:
- Put all ingredients in the breadmaker as per your recipe (ensuring that yeast is kept separate from water) and run the whole wheat dough cycle.
- Always check the dough during the kneading cycle to make sure it is sticky and pliable. Dough should be slightly sticky and definitely not hard or firm. If it is too wet or still sticking heavily to the sides of the pan, add a little flour, 1 teaspoon at a time. If it feels hard, is not a glossy ball, or does not stick a bit to your fingers, add a teaspoon of water at a time (NOT MORE than 1-2 tablespoons).
- Once dough cycle is complete, punch bread down while still in the breadmaker, scoop out onto a floured surface, shape and place in a greased pan. Cover and let rise until doubled. To rise, you could also stick it in a warm oven (my friend heats up her oven until it feels like 80 degrees, then turns it off).
- Lastly, bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes until the top is lightly golden brown. Watch your bread closely as some recipes might take longer.
Troubleshooting Your Fallen Loaf
The wisdom below is garnered from the comments section of this post where many wonderful women have taken part in the time honored tradition of helping each other make a great loaf of bread. I hope our collective knowledge will help you turn out your best loaf yet!
Common Issues
My loaf fell and/or is concave in the middle…
Solutions:
- Most likely there is too much liquid. Start by reducing the liquid by 1-2 tablespoons. Location and temperature can also cause fallen loaves. During summer, try reducing your total liquid by 1-2 tablespoons of water. In winter, add 1-2 tablespoons of water.
- If your loaf continues to fall, reduce the amount of yeast by 1/4 teaspoon.
- If you still encounter issues with fallen loaves, try adding 1 1/2 tsp. of Vital Wheat Gluten per each cup of whole wheat flour. This is in addition to reducing the water and yeast.
- Lastly, make sure you are using the whole wheat dough cycle and not the regular cycle. I’ve made this mistake before!
My bread did not rise very much…
Solution: Ensure that your yeast and salt are safely placed in the flour well (small finger-made well atop the other ingredients). If your yeast touches the liquid ingredients, the result is often a decreased rise.
My crust is too hard/tough…
Solution: Once bread is done and still warm, lightly rub with a bit of butter or coconut oil.
Happy bread-baking!
Unless otherwise credited, photos are owned by the author or used with a license from Canva or Deposit Photos.
I made this bread using my bread machine for the dough only and finished it in the oven. Turned out perfect and delicious!
Thanks for sharing! Glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you for this recipe!
I do have a couple questions:
1) I mill my own flour after soaking, sprouting, and drying. I want to try an ancient wheat like Kamut. Will it work with this soaking method?
2) This recipe is for 1lb loaf? If so, just double the ingredients for 2lbs?
Kamut will work just fine, but if you’ve already soaked and sprouted it you won’t need to soak it again and can just move ahead with the recipe without the soaking step.
It’s for a 1.5 lb loaf so I wouldn’t double it unless you have a large machine that does 3 pound loaves. I think standard is 2 lb machines.
Hope that helps! Enjoy!
I am new to bread making. Does it matter if you use soft or hard wheat in this recipe? I have soft white wheat that I mill in the Vitamix.
Soft wheat doesn’t have as much gluten so it isn’t well suited to bread. Generally, you use hard wheat in bread recipes and soft wheat for more crumbly things like cookies or biscuits.
Thank you so much for your prompt answer to my question. I went ahead and used the soft white wheat since it was what I had on hand, and it made a delicious (though a little crumbly) loaf. It was my first homemade bread, and I am so pleased with how your recipe worked in my new bread machine! I have made it twice now, and the second loaf was even better than the first. I will try your recipe again when I get a supply of hard white wheat berries! Thank you for such a delicious and nutritious recipe!
Congrats on your first loaf of bread! So glad this recipe worked out for you!
Hi
Could you provide ml and weights for the water & flour please.
Cheers
It’s 316 ml of water and the flour is 435 grams and 28 grams divided. Hope that helps, enjoy!
Very kind of you to respond to the request for weights. This recipe looks most like what I do in the oven, but my oven had died and a kind person has gifted me their bread maker. Can’t wait to try this!
I don’t have a whole wheat selection on my machine. Will it work with just regular cycle? Should I change anything to accommodate this?
The whole wheat cycle generally has a longer rise time to allow the gluten to develop more fully. I imagine using the regular cycle might result in denser loaves, but you can certainly try it and see how it goes!
hi i do not have bread maker so doing all the traditional way any tips i need to know for that.
Hi, I know Katie specifically uses a bread machine or stand mixer because she doesn’t have as much success hand-kneading bread. You can make this recipe by hand by doing it as written until the part where you run the bread machine and just mix it and knead it by hand at that point. You want to knead it until it is stretchy and springs back when you press it. If it pulls apart easily it isn’t done kneading yet. Then you would rise and cook the dough as described underneath the recipe where it shows adaptations to bake in the oven. If you want more specific tips than that I suggest searching for someone who makes bread by hand regularly. I hope that helps!
hello i have a lot of olive juice from a large jar of olives how much of it can i use instead of just the water part ???
In other recipes, I’ve seen anything from substituting 1/4 cup of olive juice to using only olive juice and no water. I guess it depends on how much of a flavor you want. Since there’s salt in the olive juice you’ll want to reduce the salt based on how much juice you use. It might require some experimenting to see how much salt is in the juice. There are recipes specifically written with olive juice which would take some of the guess work out of it for you.
Giving it a try tonight.
But why does it have to be “hand mixed”?
Sue : the main body of ingredients just need to be mixed separately from the extra floor and the yeast. To ensure those are left separately you could probably either hand mix them or use the mixer lightly just to get them evenly distributed. My mixer has a “dough” setting, but does not have just a light “mix” setting. I feel like if you choose to you could just stop it as soon as the ingredients were mixed and then follow the other instructions or hold off and add the extra flour and the yeast the next day, as some users have done.
Just discovered this recipe yesterday and made it. Oh, my goodness! The amazing smell! I made a loaf using the bread maker and just had the first piece. Truly a piece of heaven! Will use it again and again. Thanks for the recipe!!
My bread turned out amazing! I left the dough overnight (I used ACV) and then added the yeast/salt this morning and baked it in my breadmaker. Best proof/rise I’ve ever gotten!
My first attempt – a huge success!! Followed the recipe to a ‘t’ it was absolutely beautiful!! Thank-you so much!!
Pingback: Gluten is Evil? Don’t Even Listen – Unless it’s to Your Body - Reviews Health
I don’t eat sugar so honey is out. Suggestions? Can I just leave it out? Possibly replace the honey with applesauce?
Thanks!
Wk
I have made bread without any sugar before and it works just fine, I think you could omit it completely and still get good results.
Thanks Laura! I made the bread and just omitted the honey. It is good but it seems a bit salty. This is my first attempt at soaked wheat bread so I didn’t know what to expect. I think the next time I’ll try unsweetened applesauce in place of the honey. I’ll let you know how it turns out!
Glad to hear you had success! Let me know how it goes with applesauce next time.
Hi .. I just found your recipe and would like to know
1. Could I just leave the mixed ingredients to soak, and then when I am ready to continue .. add the final 1/4 c flour with the yeast and salt and start my machine ?
2. Would kefir work as the acid medium ?
Thank you for this recipe !
Yes to both, Nc! Enjoy! 🙂 katie
Hi! Thank you so much for this recipe! I have been searching and searching for a good whole wheat bread recipe for my new bread machine. Do you know if I could use fresh ground flour, as well?
Hi Megan,
That’s what I use, and it works great! 🙂 Katie
I really like this recipe. I have made it twice and each time the bread top edges rose over the top of the bread maker but had a bit of a sunken top in middle. I was thinking of substituting 1 C rye flour for 1 wh wh bread flour (2C WhWh & 1C rye) in the soaked mixture and maybe adding some flax & caraway seeds too, soaked as well I’m thinking, would this be OK? Should I reduce the liquid a bit to fix sunken middle? Would love any suggestions.
My mom adds flax seeds to her bread sometimes and doesn’t make any other changes to accommodate so I bet adding the seeds would be fine. Try reducing the liquid by 1-2 Tbs as suggested and see how it comes out! Good luck!
Thank you so much for this recipe! It is excellent! The first time I made it, the loaf lasted all of 10 minutes. My family devoured it. I was literally sitting down to list my bread machine for sale because I hadn’t been able to make a soaked bread recipe work in it. Then I found your recipe. So one question for you, I just realized that all bread machine pans have a non-stick coating on it which is suppose to bad for you. What are your thoughts on that?
Michelle,
I hear ya – the non-stick coating is really only supposed to be a problem if it’s scratched or overheated…so I don’t actually bake in the breadmaker and I am very careful not to use metal utensils. And then I have to just move past it and not worry too much…I’m so glad you liked the bread, yay! 🙂 Katie
I started this recipe last night and baked it this morning so it soaked for at least 14 hours. I used 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar as the dough conditioner. The dough was very soft, I thought overly soft, and rose really well, but during the baking process in the bread machine, it sank to half its size. Unfortunately it tastes too vinegary and too salty for me. The house also stinks of baked ACV!!!
Back to the drawing board for me. A successful whole wheat bread recipe baked in the bread machine is proving to be elusive. I might give this recipe another try but with yogurt and less salt.
Thanks for the info!
Why didn’t you add the nonfat dry powder mix that most bread machine recipes call for? (I’ve got mine soaking now, so excited!) My bread machine is older and doesn’t have a whole wheat setting but I have found the European setting adds an extra rise but still bakes the bread for the same amount of time as the basic bread
Steele,
I haven’t found it necessary – I hope the loaf turns out wonderfully for you! I avoid powdered milk because of its heavy processing: http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2010/06/23/the-real-story-of-homogenized-milk-powdered-milk-skim-milk-and-oxidized-cholesterol/
🙂 Katie
Help! I’m trying this bread for the first time today, and I accidentally spilled a little yeast onto my four as I was adding it to the bread pan! What should I do?
Kristen,
2 days later is probably too late to help with advice here – hope it all worked out for you! I’m not sure what I would have done anyway….
🙂 Katie
Hi Katie.
I tried making soaked bread in my bread machine 2-3 times a week for a month or so and unfortunately my results were incredibly inconsistent from one day to the next. I finally just went back to making my regular whole wheat bread just to keep frustration levels down. Have you had any trouble with consistency in soaked beads? This is the only one i have tried.
Kristen,
That is a lot of attempts! I do find variance, but I am a sloppy measurer most times and switch up my ratio of water to whey so much…if you get an idea of what the dough feels like when it DOES work well, you should be able to add flour even right at the end to help get your loaves more consistent…I think? Sorry it wasn’t working for you! If you like the idea of soaked bread, you can adapt just about any recipe for soaking, if that helps.
🙂 Katie
I just wanted to say that putting the last bit of flour to hold the yeast and salt is brilliant. One of those ideas where you think “Why didn’t I think of that?”.
Pingback: Cheesy Vegetable Chowder (with Homemade Croutons on top!) - Real Food Eater
Can someone please tell me what soaking the flour does ? Softer bread?
Farzana,
It’s actually a health thing – soaking reduces the action of phytic acid, releasing minerals from the grains. More here: http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/seriescarnivals/soaking-grains-an-exploration/
🙂 Katie
I just want to say a big thank you for this recipe. With just a few simple modifications, this bread has replaced store bought for my family. I decreased the butter/oil to just one Tablespoon and added two Tablespoons of Flaxseed Meal and now this bread even works for sandwiches!
It’s the perfect kind of recipe for my busy full time working but still trying to actually cook real food life. So simple to throw in the breadmaker the night before, set the timer and wake up to fresh bread in the morning. And simple but real food is what I need. It makes great breakfast toast and tasty sandwiches too for my husband, myself and two teenagers 🙂
Greetings!
Have read several times:
http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/2008/01/kitchen-tip-tuesday-homemade-bread.html
Have read this recipe & all posts several times.
At redstaryeast.com , I read that for all Red Star yeasts, & on same site, for all SAF yeasts, used in a bread machine, liquids should be at 80 degrees.
Of course, that temp. is to get the yeast to properly do what it is supposed to do.
After all ingredients are added to bread pan, and it soaks over night/12 hours, the liquids will have cooled to less than 80 degrees(unless the room temp. was 80 degrees during soak period).
How does the yeast do it’s thing then, when liquids have cooled to less than 80 degrees?
Yes, I am a newbie to soaking, & somewhat of the same to bread making, and bread machines . . . lol . . .
Many thanx!
KT
Just read your comment, hope this still applies. In a breadmaker, whether you have it on a timer or you start from the beginning in the morning, the machine usually warms for a few minutes, thus warming the liquids so the yeast can do it’s job.
You have to be right on the money . . . because . . .
Have done this recipe about a dozen times after my post, in a twice-used second-hand Breadman TR-500 I picked up last fall for $20.
I follow the recipe to the letter, except mix it by hand in a big bowl, then plop it in the Breadman.
It has never failed, has always turned out what I think to be perfect.
Thank you!
Hi there
Has anyone had any luck with a soaked gluten free bread?
Kezia,
I haven’t dabbled in GF flours much, but there are some great grain-free recipes out there, for biscuits and crackers. Bread I haven’t seen quite so much…
Hello, First of all thank you for the recipe! All of my family loves it! I have made if five or six times now and the center of my bread always collapses! Any idea why! I just made some with vital wheat gluten cause a friend said it might help but it still collapsed! Thanks
This recipe is very similar to my recipe, which has gluten. I’ve found it works better on the white cycle, with the gluten a whole wheat cycle rises too long. Also you can try reducing your yeast. Your breadmaker manual likely has a troubleshooting section that will help.
Gail,
Pardon my long delay; I got behind on comments as I released my snacks ebook…
I’m sure Sarah H is onto something – it’s a problem with the length of the rise in one way or the other. Honestly, I always pull my dough out of the breadmaker and bake in the oven because I like the crust better, anyway, so I’m more in charge of the proper rise that way.
🙂 Katie
I tried this recipe and I really liked! do you have a recipe for 2 pound loaf ?
Thanks
Bel2,
All my bread recipes are listed here: http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2011/01/04/introducing-seeking-the-perfect-homemade-whole-wheat-bread/
Thanks! Katie
Pingback: Natural, Healthy, & Frugal Oh My!!! « Joeyanna's Journey
I would also like to know the answer to this one 🙂
Oops, I see the answer at the bottom 😉
Tasty, although it fell badly. My gut told me to add gluten or maybe some extra flour but I wanted to try it as-is the first time, since I’m new to soaking. Hopefully it’ll work better next time. Thanks for the recipe!
Bonnie, Hopefully a little extra flour will work – I imagine bread machines are all a little different anyway. You might check out my series on whole grain breads, as I found some recipes (to bake in the oven, although usually after my breadmaker does the hard work) I like even more: http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2011/01/04/introducing-seeking-the-perfect-homemade-whole-wheat-bread/
🙂 Katie
I’m wondering if you can use whey for ALL the liquid, instead of just using 2 Tbs.? I make my own yogurt, then make bread with oatmeal soaked in 2 cups of whey (just started doing this). Is this the same as soaking the flour? I love my bread and wonder if I could make it even better if I soaked the flour too?
Carol,
You should totally soak the flour, too – it may take some tweaking to figure out amounts, but the nutrition will definitely increase! I’ve found that if I use more than a Tbs of whey per cup water, I need to add more flour. If you do 100% whey, you might need 1/2 -1 extra cup of flour to compensate. Hope that works well for you! 🙂 Katie
do you know how to make this without a bread machine?
Miriam,
I’d recommend this series for great breads w/ and w/o a bread machine: http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2011/01/04/introducing-seeking-the-perfect-homemade-whole-wheat-bread/
Either this post or the explanation post of “how I bake bread” explains how to adapt bread machine recipes to hand done and vice versa. Good luck! 🙂 Katie
Tried this last night – my first soaked recipe! So super yummy!!! Messed up the time on my breadmaker since I rarely time anything so the bread was almost cool by the time we got up (and therefore the crust was super dark.) No big deal. The inside was soft and the loaf was scrumptious!! Definitely moving to the faves list! Thanks so much!!
Dawn,
Great! Most bread recipes are even better if you pull the dough and bake in the oven, I’ve found. I’m picky about that doggone crust… 😉 Katie
I do prefer my bread baked in the oven, but living in a house without central heat and air prevents me from doing a lot of baking from mar-Sept. 🙁 I was graciously gifted a Zo which does allow to have a nice soft crust. My new issue is forgetting to soak. Have you tried this recipe without soaking? It is so tasty but I am concerned that it may be the soaking that makes it so good. I have often in the last month forgotten (durn ADD) to soak at night. It is on my list of Nightly To Do-s but sometimes even my list gets forgotten!
Thanks bunches and bunches!
Dawn,
This recipe is just the standard one from my breadmaker’s book, so I def. tried it first w/o soaking before adapting it. It should be fine that way! 🙂 Katie
Thank you so much! This is the best loaf of WW bread I’ve made and I’ve also been wanting to soak for the single loaf bread machine. I too mill my grains. Hoping to make cinnamon, cranberry and nut loaf next. I hope this recipe can handle the addition.
Judy, Oooh, yum, let me know if it can, please! 🙂 Katie
I made rolls with this! Delicious! Stirred up the “soaking” ingredients in a bowl for overnight, then scraped it into my breadmaker in the a.m., added 1/2 cup+(it was a little too sticky) of whole wheat flour, the salt and yeast, set it on dough cycle. When it was done, I formed the dough into sandwich roll sizes and then let them rise for another hour on baking sheets. Baked at 350 for about 11 min’s. My kids told me they were REALLY good 😉
KJ,
thanks, great to know! 🙂 katie
Hi…. I’ve been grinding my own hard wheat and making my own bread. I’ve tried kneading it on my own and using my Oster breadmaker. The breadmaker works GREAT! So, I’ve been sticking with that. Now its time for me to move on and learn to soak my flour. Heres my “problem” I mixed my 3c. flour with the amout of water and Braggs apple cider vinegar. It was SOOOOOO dry. I then added the honey and olive oil that didnt help. I put all the ingredients in my bread machine to have it mix it for me, as it was so dry I was getting no where. Well, when it was done, it was a beautiful round doughball. All the pictures I’ve seen of soaked flour have been this pudding like wet mess. I dont understand this because you would then have to add so much flour to get it firmed up. So, I went with it just to see what would happen. I took the breadpan out of the bread machine and put it in the oven, covered it with foil and turned on the oven light. Left it there overnight. In the morning, I just added the yeast, salt and some dough enhancer and let it run. It was still dry, so I added some water. Well, my finished product didnt rise well at all and was pretty dense. So, what am I doing wrong? I live where the altitude it 4500 feet. I dont know if this plays into it or not. Should I just soak half the flour? My bread machine recipe just calls for 3c. flour…. and thats all I used. Do I use 1 1/2 c. next time for soaking??? Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated.
Thanks!!!!
Kim,
First I should say I know nothing about altitude and baking…but with soaking, what the dough/batter looks like really depends on the recipe. For most breads, the soaked dough should look pretty much like the regular finished product. If you hold out some water to help incorporate the yeast, which might be wise for you since your dough didn’t rise, it will be even drier, just like you describe. I don’t even like trying to knead yeast into soaked dough if I don’t have a machine to do it for me! 😉
My suggestion would be to try soaking all the flour, but hold out 1/4 cup water, 1 tsp honey and the yeast and salt. Mix those together and add to the machine when it’s time to get everything going again the next day, and see if your machine performs better. I did find once that the machine probably didn’t get the yeast incorporated, so the bread didn’t rise. The next time I helped the machine along by folding the dough/yeast inward a few times as it was going so it didn’t get stuck on top.
Good luck!
🙂 Katie
I just stumbled across this recipe this morning. I also have been making soaked whole wheat bread in the bread maker by adapting a regular recipe. Mine is dairy free (cononut oil and water kefir) and I let the machine mix it the night before, unplug it, and then add the salt and yeast the next morning and restart the machine.
Also, I discovered the trick to keeping the crust soft is to brush it with coconut oil (or butter) immediately after removing it from the pan.
I’m not sure how you are choosing trial recipes for your current best bread search, but I’d be happy to share if you are interested.
This is an awesome recipe!! So happy to have found a soaked-grain bread maker recipe that’s just so delicious! This made the softest loaf of bread I’ve made yet. It over-rose a little bit with the wheat gluten flour so I’ll try adding less this time. Thanks so much!
Hello,
I’d like to start off by writing you that this is one of my favorite blogs, and I’ve been taking mini Monday missions you offer and changing my life for better, thanks to your help 🙂
Keep up the amazing work.
About the bread, I have a question-
I heard that it’s not good to cook/bake/heat honey and olive oil.
for example:
http://sites.google.com/site/spiritualfoodcsa/food-a-pedia/raw-honey
Is this true? Because in your bread recipe you heat them both…
I’d love to get a response, thanks 🙂
Rakefet
Rakefet,
If you bake with raw honey, it will no longer be raw, so you’ll lose those benefits. But it’s still better than white sugar and you can’t change the sugar structure just by baking. If your raw honey is more expensive, you might buy cheaper honey for baking. I can’t say I’ve ever seen anything like that website you linked. ?? If you’re worried, about it, you can always use sugar or molasses or something.
As for olive oil, the internal temp of your bread probably only gets up to 170 or so, not even over 200. The smoke point of extra virgin olive oil is well over 300F, so you’ll be just fine.
Great question!
🙂 Katie
Hi Katie,
I made soaked flour bread again yesterday in my breadmaker, however, this time I used my breadmaker’s WW Bread recipe to see what would happen. I followed your “Formula” of separating out the salt and yeast until last, separating it from the wet dough by 1/4 of dry flour. It worked great!
I wondered about evaporation of water from the dough during the overnight soaking, so I watched the dough very carefully while it was being kneaded. I ended up adding one extra tsp. of water (not much at all!) as the dough was a tad dry.
When making bread, you should always look at your dough during the kneading process; if it is a little gooey or sticky add 1 TBSP of flour at a time until it no longer sticks to the side of the pan. It should form a nice, glossy ball. On the flip side, if your ball of dough is too dry it will have a dull, dry look, not glossy. In this case, add water 1 TBSP.of water at time to the dough until it has glossy shine. (The amount of moisture in your flour depends on the temperature and humidity in the ambient air as well as the age of the flour.)
So, to recap, take your own breadmaker’s tried and true recipe and follow Katie’s formula of mixing all ingredients (except for 1/4 cup of the flour and the salt and yeast, which are made into a mound on the top of the wet ingredients) and go for for it!
Hi, I’ve tried the recipe, and I’ve had to add up to 3/4 cups of flour in the kneading cycle to get the bread dough to the correct consistency
; it was wet and drippy. So, next time, I am going to reduce the water to a cup and try mixing the ingredients in my food processor instead of by hand. However, it was still really delicious!
For all of you who have bread that is rising and caving in in the middle, there is probably not enough gluten in your flour to “support” it after the yeast causes it to rise, so it collapses. First, try reducing the amount of yeast by 1/4 tsp.
Next, try adding 1 1/2 tsps. of Vital Wheat Gluten per each cup of whole wheat flour. You can buy it any health food store and most large grocery stores. The brand I have is by Arrowhead Mills. The additional wheat gluten makes a huge difference in the quality of the bread. (I assume if all of you are eating bread, then you are not allergic to gluten.)
I also highly, highly recommend the book “Smart Bread Machine Recipes, Healthy, Whole Grain & Delicious” by Sandra L Woodruff. She has many other fabulous tips on how to make the best possible whole grain breads. I believe the book is out of print, but you can get it on Amazon.
Katie, thanks sooooo much for sharing this recipe; you’ve really paved the way for the rest of us to make great soaked flour bread in our bread machines!
Joyce,
You definitely know much more than I about bread baking! What incredibly helpful tips, thank you so much!
🙂 Katie
Question:
Do I put the yeast and salt in the well of 1/4 c flour?
Thanks.
Crystal,
Exactly. The flour is to protect the yeast from the moist dough while soaking overnight so that you can set the bread machine timer to make the bread for you. If you’re not using a time, you could just add the yeast and salt whenever you turn the machine on.
🙂 Katie
Boo! My bread is sinking 🙁 I’ll have to try some of the tips in the comments. It is on Whole Wheat. I read the manual and didn’t see any special instructions or settings for the smaller loaf. It smells wonderful, though. Hoping it won’t be too sour b/c I had to use lemon juice for the soaking and not whey.
Beth,
I hope you figure it out! I’ve found I use my breadmaker a ton more by making it mix and knead my bread, and then I put it in a regular pan in the oven. Better results that way, generally! 🙂 katie
How exactly do you do that? Do you use the dough setting in that case? Or still the whole wheat setting, just removing the dough before the baking begins?? And how long and at what temp would you bake it?? I adore the dough setting recipes in my machine’s recipe book (but am not so crazy about the ones that bake in the machine), so I feel like I’d like this bread better in the oven too! Thx!
Mindy,
It’s been so long since I made this particular recipe, I don’t even remember…BUT I have this one soaking in my breadmaker now: http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2011/02/01/seeking-the-perfect-homemade-whole-wheat-our-favorite-happy-rolls-no-4/
I use the regular dough cycle and then make rolls – this batch will be pizza crusts prebaked for a party Saturday – and it’s wonderful! 🙂 Katie
Hi! I am new to bread maker baking, and every time I attempt a soaked grain loaf it falls (big time!) in the middle. Any suggestions? I do have the Oster breadmaker, and I’ve read some bad reviews about ANY bread falling in the middle… so maybe it’s the breadmaker and I should return it for a different brand?
Thanks so much
Rachael,
Are you using the whole wheat setting? The one time I had a caved-in loaf, I accidentally left it on regular bread setting and it didn’t have a long enough rise time. You could try allowing your breadmaker to knead the bread only, and then take over manually from there (rise until doubled, about 1-2 hours, then put in pans and rise until it crests the pan). Then you would know if it’s the way you’re mixing up the recipe or your machine. Passionate Homemaking has a winner of a soaked bread recipe, but I don’t think it’s breadmaker. Good luck!
🙂 Katie
I have an oster bread maker also, and the times I have done soaked whole wheat bread I had to reduce the moisture a bit in the bread to keep it from caving and I also reduced the yeast.
I have used this brand of breadmaker with great results for 14 years. Just adjust your recipe. It will work out…. only do one adjustment at a time though. To see which one really works.
Good luck.
I’m going to try this as my first soaked bread experiment (baby steps don’t ya know). So I’m thrilled that you have done some experimenting for all of us, Katie. My breadmaker has small (1 Lb), medium (1.5 Lb) and large (2Lb) settings. Looks like the typical Medium loaf uses 3 cups of flour but I’m wondering if the “soaking” doesn’t effectively increase the 3 1/4 cups flour to 4 cups which would make a large loaf (2 Lb). Does anyone have any advice, thoughts, educated guesses, opinions: is this recipe making a 1.5 Lb (Medium) or 2 Lb loaf of bread?
Peace,
Lisa
Lisa,
My breadmaker has 3 sizes, too, but I lent it out with the instructions! Whoops. 🙁 I’m pretty sure I made the medium-sized loaf for this, like you said. Remember the ingredients aren’t going to change just because it’s soaked – the flour and water are the same amounts, just mixed together at a different time. Does that help? Does your breadmaker make you choose which size in order to run properly? I hope you get it to work out great!
🙂 Katie
Hi! I’m a new reader here through Nourishing Traditions. I was so excited to find this recipe as I have been looking for a soaked, bread maker recipe for such a long time. It’s really the only way I have time to make bread.
I tried this recipe last night in my Breadman Pro breadmaker and unfortunately mine fell in the middle. I used King Arthur white whole wheat flour, home cultured buttermilk for the acidic medium, and ran it on the whole wheat cycle set with the timer. I’m sure anything from my maker to my changes could have caused it to fall in so my only tweak for my own use would be to reduce the yeast to perhaps 1 1/2 tsp.
That said, the smell this morning was heavenly and I could just barely wait for it to cool enough for cutting. It tasted as good as it smelled and was not at all heavy tasting, more melt in your mouth good. I can’t wait for my finicky, white bread loving hubby to try it!
Mrs. Cote,
Welcome! Glad to have you, and I’m glad you’re sticking around after a concave load of bread. 😉 Mine only fell in the middle badly the time I forgot to push the “whole wheat” button. It really needs that extra rise time! I hope your tweak works for next time!
🙂 Katie
Mrs. Cote,
I use the same flour. When your bread is concave it means that you added to much water. I’d suggest reducing the water a little or adding another 1/4 cup of flour (bread) when you mix it up.
I made this same recipe and added an additional 1/4 cup bread flour because the dough was too wet for my machine to mix and I did it on the Basic (3 hour) cycle. Worked great!
FYI- weather and location play a key. If you live in a humid environment or a dry environment. I know that in the summer I use less water in bread baking and more in the winter when the heater/fireplace is on 24-7.
Hope this helps. If you need more, contact King Arthur Flours. Their bakers hotline rocks!
Thanks, I think I will adapt my own recipe as you have…. I have been wanting to do a soaked bread with my bread machine, I have been making bread with it for the past 15 years and am glad to up the ante with soaked grain bread.
I made this bread and all I can say is WOW! Not only is this my first soaked bread recipe, but it’s the best loaf of 100% whole wheat I’ve ever made. I started the soaking yesterday morning, set my delay timer on my breadmaker before going to bed, awoke briefly at 3 a.m. to the sound of the breadmaker kneading my dough and then woke up at 6:15 to the smell of freshly baked bread. I was giddy with excitment as I sliced it and slathered that first slice with butter. Thank you for this great recipe.
Liz,
AWEsome!! I’m so glad you liked it – it was just the breadmaker book’s recipe, adapted for soaking. 🙂 Katie
Thank you so much for this recipe! I’m trying to be better about soaking our flours and oats and such, but am still learning how to meal-plan ahead! I love my bread machine and this will be even better for us.
I am so happy to help! I’ve learned a great deal from blogs out there and am excited to share. I searched and searched for a basic soaked bread machine recipe and couldn’t find one that wasn’t for a Bosch, so I made my own. I mix up the first list of 5 ingredients with a spoon right in my breadmaker pan. Yes, then you put an extra 1/4 cup of flour (to make 3 1/4 cups total) on top with a dent to keep the yeast from touching the wet mixture. I do it this way so I have the option of setting the time for fresh bread in the morning, so the pan is right in the machine. Since it should soak at least 12 hours, I try to start it the a.m. or afternoon before I want bread. My machine has a “whole wheat” setting, which I use. I forgot once and it defaulted to “basic”, which worked but made a big sinkhole in the bread! It looked goofy but didn’t taste too dense or anything. We just ate it with the hole!
I should clarify that I’ve only ever tried this with plain yogurt for the “acidic medium”. For most soaking recipes, you can use all those other choices, but I’m not positive they won’t change the flavor of the bread.
Good luck! I hope this works with all breadmakers! 🙂
I have a Bosch and would love the links to the those recipes. I’ve tried soaking my basic recipe (adding the yeast, honey, and salt the next morning/day) but the texture is just not the same or as good as the unsoaked.
I hope to try sourdough this summer – just too busy now with school/sports to experiment.
Thanks!
Jennifer,
It’s been a long time…but maybe try http://kellythekitchenkop.com/ and see what’s there? I know she loves her Bosch! 🙂 Katie
Hi there, thanks for this recipe, i tried it but it didn’t rise and is soggy inside… Any idea what i am doing wrong??
I can only guess that perhaps your yeast was old, didn’t get fully incorporated by the machine, or somehow your machine is vastly different than mine. Did you use the ”
whole wheat” cycle? That’s pretty important too. Hopefully you’ll nail it next time! 🙂 Katie