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Bread

Entire Wheat Bread

A loaf of bread made from whole wheat flour, yeast, water, sugar, salt, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Entire Wheat Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the dough

  1. Measure the flour before sifting; sift it into a bowl, reserving 1 cup for kneading.

  2. Add sugar and salt to the flour.

  3. Dissolve the yeast in a little warm water and pour it into the bowl along with the rest of the water and the softened butter.

  4. Beat the dough vigorously with a spoon until smooth and light.

Knead and rise

  1. Sprinkle some reserved flour on a board, turn out the dough, and knead for 20 minutes.

  2. Return the dough to the bowl and let it rise overnight, about 6 to 8 hours.

Shape and bake

  1. When the dough is light, turn it out, divide it into 2 loaves, and shape them smoothly.

  2. Place the loaves in well-greased pans and set them in a warm place until doubled in size.

  3. Bake 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. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Wheat + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Entire wheat flour
Provides the structure of the loaf, with bran and germ giving a denser, nuttier crumb.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
Warm water
Hydrates the flour so gluten can form and activates the yeast.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds a little sweetness and browning.
Butter
Adds fat for a softer texture and richer flavor.

The step that matters

Kneading the dough for 20 minutes. Kneading develops the gluten network that traps the gas from the yeast. Whole wheat flour has bran that cuts through gluten, so thorough kneading and a full rise matter for a light loaf.

“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

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