Skip to main content
Bread

Whole-wheat Bread

A yeast-leavened loaf made with white and whole-wheat flour, milk, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Whole-wheat Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sponge

  1. Mix ½ cup lukewarm water, 1 cup white flour, and ½ cake yeast dissolved in ¼ cup lukewarm water to make a sponge.

  2. Cover and set in a warm place (about 90°F) until light and foamy.

Make the dough

  1. Add ½ cup scalded milk (cooled to lukewarm), ½ teaspoon salt, and enough whole-wheat flour to make a stiff dough.

  2. Knead thoroughly and mold into a loaf.

Rise and bake

  1. Place in a buttered pan, cover closely, and set in a warm place until it doubles in size.

  2. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  3. Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350°F (175°C) and continue baking for 1 hour.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light and airy.
White flour
Provides gluten-forming protein that gives the sponge its initial structure.
Whole-wheat flour
Adds bulk and structure to the stiff dough, giving a denser, nuttier loaf.
Scalded milk
Adds tenderness and richness, and softens the crumb.

The step that matters

Let the dough fully double in a warm place. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce enough gas; under-proofed dough bakes up dense, while over-proofed dough can collapse. Watching for doubled size rather than just time helps the loaf rise evenly in the oven.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

More whole wheat bread recipes

Unfermented 3 See all 125 →

You might also like

Wheat BreadWheat Bread65 recipesBarley Wheat BreadBarley Wheat Bread6 recipesCornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipes