100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
A 100% fresh-milled hard white wheat sandwich loaf at 75% hydration with a long autolyse and enriched with butter and honey for a soft, tender crumb.
Key Takeaways
- Hard white wheat gives the mildest flavor for sandwich bread.
- A 45–60 minute autolyse softens fresh-milled bran for a tender crumb.
- Butter and honey keep the loaf soft for days.
- Bake to 200–205°F internal for fully cooked, sliceable bread.
About this recipe
A soft, everyday sandwich loaf made with 100% freshly milled hard white wheat. Beginner-friendly and built for sandwiches and toast.
Prep: 20 min
Bake: 38 min
Hydration: 75%
Ingredients
- Fresh-milled hard white wheat flour500 g (about 4 cups)
- Water (95°F)375 g (1½ cups + 2 tbsp)
- Honey30 g (1½ tbsp)
- Instant yeast6 g (2 tsp)
- Fine sea salt10 g (1¾ tsp)
- Softened butter30 g (2 tbsp)
Instructions
- 1
Mill 500 g hard white wheat berries; cool to room temperature.
- 2
Whisk flour and water. Cover and autolyse 45–60 minutes.
- 3
Add honey, yeast, salt, and butter. Mix until smooth, 4–6 minutes.
- 4
Bulk ferment 60–90 minutes at 76°F with one set of stretch-and-folds at 30 minutes.
- 5
Shape into a tight log and place seam-down in a greased 9x5 pan.
- 6
Proof 45–75 minutes until dough crests 1 inch above the rim.
- 7
Bake at 375°F for 35–40 minutes until internal temp reads 200–205°F.
- 8
Cool fully on a rack before slicing (yields one 9x5 loaf, ~12 slices). Store wrapped at room temp 3 days or freeze sliced up to 2 months.
new to fresh-milled flour? start here — hydration, gluten development, and grain choice tips that make this recipe work.
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Recommended Grains
Related Techniques
How to Sift Fresh Milled Flour
Pass freshly milled flour through a 50 or 60 mesh sieve. Reserve the bran for porridge or rebake it in.
How to Autolyse Fresh Milled Flour
Combine flour and water and let it rest before adding yeast and salt. Bran softens, gluten develops passively, and the final dough is dramatically easier to handle.
How to Increase Hydration Successfully
Raise water in 5% increments, autolyse longer, and lean on stretch and folds instead of kneading.
Related Troubleshooting
Why is my fresh milled bread dense?
Loaves baked with fresh milled flour come out heavy, tight, and barely risen instead of light and airy.
Why is my crumb too tight and dense?
Bread with a uniformly tight, small-holed crumb rather than the open, airy structure you wanted.
Why is my whole wheat bread so crumbly?
Whole wheat loaves crumble when sliced, fall apart in sandwiches, or do not hold together cleanly.
Related Conversions
Bread Flour to Hard White Wheat (Fresh-Milled)
Swap 1:1 by weight and add 5–8% more water. A 20–40 minute autolyse helps; sifting 10–15% of the coarsest bran makes the crumb nearly indistinguishable from a bread-flour loaf. Fermentation runs ~10–20% faster than bread flour.
All-Purpose Flour to Hard White Wheat (Fresh-Milled)
Swap 1:1 by weight (not volume) and add 5–8% more water. A 20–40 minute autolyse, or sifting to remove ~10–15% of the coarsest bran, brings the texture very close to AP. Fermentation runs roughly 10–20% faster than the original AP recipe.