Honey Whole Wheat Bread Recipe From Fresh Milled Berries

I love baking homemade bread, even in the hottest of summer. The smell of homemade bread is out of this world, and the taste so perfect.

honey wheat bread recipe

My family can literally gobble down a whole loaf before it’s been completely cooled! With some butter and jam, this is the perfect treat! Making it yourself costs about $.50 for 2 loaves and there is no plastic trash to deal with. Win-win-win all round!

When you are able to mill the wheat yourself, it makes the perfect food storage item. Most wheat berries, if stored properly, can be stored for 20 years. I use plastic food grade buckets to store mine.

Simply mark what berries you are storing and when you got them so you can rotate your stock. This is the last of the soft wheat for my storage, so thankfully we will be placing our Spring order with our co-op soon.

bread dough

Once you get your wheat berries, you will want to have a grain mill for them.

I love my WonderMill. It’s super quiet (well, as quiet as they can be) and it has 3 different settings; pastry, homemade bread and course. It is great for making whole wheat pastry flour as well as all purpose flour. I also use it to mill corn for cornmeal. Simply pour in the amount of berries you want to mill.

One cup of berries of soft white wheat  can give you 1 1/2 cups of flour. You don’t want to mill more than 6-8 cups at once in the WonderMill, as it may run over and create a huge mess (trust me on this one!).

loaves rising

I will mill several batches at a time and store the whole wheat flour in the freezer to help keep the nutrients longer. Usually, we will use this up in a week or so.

When your wheat berries are milled, you will want to get to work baking some fresh, homemade bread. What could be better than a fresh loaf of honey whole wheat bread? With the sweetness of honey and the nutrients in the wheat, this is a wheat bread you’ll feel good about feeding your family again and again!

honey wheat bread recipe

Ingredients
  

  • 2 cups warm water
  • 1 tablespoon dry yeast or one packet
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 1/2 cup coconut oil or melted butter
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 cups wheat flour
  • 2 cups white flour

Instructions
 

  • Dissolve the yeast in the warm water.
  • Add the honey and oil and stir.
  • Allow to “proof” for 10 minutes, until the yeast is active and bubbly.
  • Add the salt to the flour, and add in 2 cup increments while mixing. You want the dough to pull away from the side of the mixer, but yet still be on the sticky side. Fresh milled flour can take a bit longer to absorb the liquid so if you add more flour at this time, you may end up with a dry and crumbly loaf.
  • Knead by hand or mixer for about 10 minutes. You need this time to get a good development on the gluten in the wheat for a fluffy loaf.
  • Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour.
  • Punch down, and divide the dough in half.
  • Shape into loaves, and place in two greased bread pans. I like to add a cut down the middle for appearances.
  • Let rise a second time until doubled again.
  • Put the bread in a cold oven, and turn the oven on to 400 degrees. (This helps give the yeast another “kick” and makes your bread more fluffy.)
  • Bake for 30 minutes from time you put the bread in.
  • Cool for 10 minutes, and remove from pans.
  • Allow to finish cooling for another 10-15 minutes on a cooling rack before you cut into it.

Do you make your own homemade bread from scratch? What is your favorite wheat bread recipe? Be sure to pin this for later!

honey wheat bread

14 thoughts on “Honey Whole Wheat Bread Recipe From Fresh Milled Berries”

  1. It is such a blessing to find you. We have been making our own bread since June, trying different recipes and for the most part have been happy with the way they turned out. We just needed one that was more like a sandwich bread and the good Lord put you on here. It is amazing that the ingredients are pretty much the same as some of the other recipes, but I believe the way you put them together and also starting the bread in a cold oven is the difference. We made some today~delicious! Thank you so much and I loved reading about your sweet family. God bless.

  2. Diane Hoffmaster

    I have a grain mill and really love it. I don’t use it as often as I would like because I am a horrible bread baker! I can never get it to rise well….maybe I need a warmer house!

  3. If and when we go back to grains, I will FOLLOW this post! Bread baking is a challenge for me, and I always feel like with a flat recipe, I must be missing steps. It comes out too wet or yeasty or something. Plus Honey Wheat is MY FAVORITE!

  4. All Natural Katie

    Wow! This bread looks absolutely amazing and moist. I am going to try this recipe. I have made my own sourdough starter and would like to take the next step and grind my own wheat.

  5. This looks delicious! I wish I had the space for a grain mill, but military housing doesn’t come with much extra space 🙂 I’ll have to make this with store-bought wheat flour instead!

  6. Valerie Norris Oliver

    You are using “refined white flour” to mix with you wheat flour? I have a wondermill but never use it because my bread has always turned out harder than a rock.

    1. I use that only for the same reasons…my 100% whole wheat bread is better suited for building with than eating 😉 I have occasionally added wheat gluten to the mix, but for US personally, adding 2 cups of white flour makes it taste better too. It’s one of those 80/20 eating things…where 20% is not “real food” or is more processed.

  7. Lara @ MommyKazam

    Yum! I love fresh baked bread! I am also going to have to give the Wondermill a try, I love the idea of settings for bread vs. pastry 🙂

  8. I love this post. I make bread from whole wheat berries with a grain mill. I use honey too! make outstanding bread. I love the tip about the slice in the loaf. maybe mine will quit being so lopsided if I do this!:) #HomesteadBlogHop

  9. Love this recipe. Make it every week for sandwiches & toast. There is always a bit of panic in my house when we get low on this bread.

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