Looking for "soft" light wheat bread recipe
 

I use part wheat flour bout 1/3 wheat and 2/3 white but my bread is so dense. Does anyone have a wheat bread recipe they love? We have an Amish store nearby that has the best wheat bread but they are closing.
Thanks. Terry

Try asking the Amish store for their recipe and see what happens.

Wheat Bread
 

Hi there. When I first started baking my own wheat bread, I made a lot of door stops. I mill my own flour. I get spelt wheat berries from Wheat Montana. I use 1 cup white flour for each loaf of bread and add dough enhancer. You can make your own dough enhancer (which is what I do since I bake a lot of bread) or buy it on line. I also add powdered milk--but a special type available on the King Arthur website. They have lots of great information and products for bakers. My friend uses the same products but in her bread machine. Dough enhancers are great for increasing rise and keeping bread fresh longer. Good luck!

This is for the bread machine but would work fine if hand mixed too. One egg, slightly beaten, one cup hot tap water, 2 Tablespoons oil, 2 tablespoons honey (or sugar), 1 Teaspoon salt. These go in bread pan first (or according to breadmaker directions), Dump in one cup whole wheat bread flour, two cups white bread flour, and 2 teaspoons yeast. Turn breadmaker to dough cycle. When it is done dump dough out onto floured board and knead and shape into a loaf. Put in greased bread pan. Let rise until very light, at least double. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

I use whole wheat pastry flour instead of regular whole wheat flour. The pastry flour is lighter and you will see a difference. Also, you can add a fourth to a half cup of applesauce and it will make it lighter.

Thanks! I'm going to try this!

This is the recipe I use all the time in my bread machine, but you can make it without one also. It makes one loaf. I think the oatmeal makes it more moist and soft. Bread flour contains more gluten than regular flour, so it makes better yeast doughs, but does not work well for pies, cakes, and cookies.
1 c. warm water
1 1/2 tbs. butter
1/2 cup old fashioned oatmeal
2 1/2 tbs. sugar or honey
2 tbs. dry milk powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tbs. wheat bran (optional)
1 tbs. cracked wheat (optional)
1 tbs. wheat germ
2 tbs. wheat gluten
1/2 cup wheat flour
1 1/2 cups bread flour (Use any combination of wheat and bread flour that equals about 2 cups, if often does not take the whole two cups for the dough to be the right consistency.)
2 tsp. yeast
Put all ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed. Bake on wheat bread cycle, 1 1/2 lb. loaf size, light crust setting.
HINTS: Keep out about 1/4 cup of the bread flour and check during the kneading cycle to see if it needs more. Dough should be moist by not sticky. Do not over bake! For my machine, I take the loaf out 10 minutes before the end of the baking cycle.

I usually add a little extra yeast (i.e. 1Tbsp vs 2 tsp), but the other thing that can be hampering your loaves is not enough gluten. If the dough doesn't stretch to contain the bubbles of air, and instead lets them escape, you get a heavier loaf. Gluten is developed by kneading and using an appropriate flour that can develop good gluten. If your flour doesn't develop enough gluten you can knead it longer, add gluten, or mix it with another flour that does develop good gluten, or some combination of those.

What does your dough look like if you do the windowpane test? http://www.thekitchn.com/bakers-tech...to-do-th-70784

When I make Rye bread for DH, I mix it with a red spring wheat or even the white wheat I have here, because rye doesn't develop much gluten at all. I tried with Kamut, but the Kamut flavor wasn't very nice with the Rye.

Most of my loaves (unless done in the bread maker) are sourdough loaves which tend toward a heavy loaf anyway, which is why I had to learn some of the ways to mitigate it. :)

I also grind my own wheat berries for my bread. My recipe is: for 2 loaves:n 2 1/2 c. warm water, 1/4 c. oil, 1/4 c. honey, 2 Tblsp. gluten, 1 Tblsp. dough enhancer,2 Tblsp. yeast, 1 Tblsp. salt, 6 -8 c. flour. I made this yesterday and it turned out moist and wonderful. I use only the flour I grind and it is not heavy or dense.

When you say "wheat bread" do you mean whole wheat? I use King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour. There are several recipes with it, but I just use it for about a quarter of the regular flour. The loaf looks white but has the nutrition and flavor of whole wheat. Try kingarthurflour.com

Try their whole wheat recipe, too: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recip...t-bread-recipe

Another thought too:
A lot of recipes do better if you do your measurements by dry weight rather than by the liquid measurement - i.e. 8oz vs a cup. Part of the reason for that is that a bagged flour tends to be clumped and compacted together and you'll tend to measure out way more flour than you would with fresh ground. Try it one day, if you can get freshly milled berries, sprinkle them from a scoop vs the same process from a bagged flour. I found that I was putting in almost 1/3 cup more flour with the bagged flour than the freshly ground based on the dry weight of them which also made for a heavier drier loaf.

When I bake my whole wheat bread I add 2 tbsps vinegar or lemon juice per 2 1/2 cups of the flour. I ususally use vinegar because the taste disappears and the lemon juice can still be tasted. Apparently the acid allows the gluten strands to develop. I hope I am not repeating what has already been posted. My time is limited so I don't have time to read every post.
Whole grain bread is a heavier loaf as you will notice when you buy whole grain at the store. But this method does make a lighter loaf.
Lynda

Lately, I've been making a lot of sourdough. Using all white flour though. Because sourdough is mostly only flour and water, I add my own "dough enhancers" which amounts to powdered lecithin and vital wheat gluten. This creates a soft bread with great rise. I've been thinking I need to give it a try with whole wheat one of these days.

I've been using this one lately:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/San-Fra...urdough-Bread/

The changes I've made:
Water instead of milk
butter instead of margarine
half fresh ground whole wheat, half white
I leave off the onion and the egg wash.

I have a pan of water under the rack the loaves are on to help the bake.