How to Make Softer and Fluffier Whole Wheat Bread

It can be hard to get homemade whole wheat bread as soft and fluffy as the loaves we see at the grocery store. All too often, our loaves end up like dense heavy bricks. But there is hope! A few baking tricks can help us get much closer to the pillowy whole wheat loaves we crave.

The reason why whole wheat loaves end up so dense is because whole wheat flour has very little gluten as compared to white all-purpose flour. Gluten is important for giving the dough - and final loaves - structure. Without it, loaves tend to end up flat and dense.

One trick is to add some white all-purpose flour along with the whole wheat flour. Even just a little white flour has enough gluten to give the dough better structure. White and whole wheat flour can be substituted one-to-one, so just play with the ratio of the two until you end up with a loaf you like.

If you want to keep your bread 100% whole wheat, vital wheat gluten is your new best friend. This stuff is super-concentrated gluten flour, and it really helps to give low-gluten doughs better structure. Add one tablespoon of vital wheat gluten for every 2-3 cups of flour in your recipe. You can find it in the natural food sections of most grocery stores these days, or order it online from a place like King Arthur Flour.

To make softer loaves, try letting the dough rest for about 20 minutes before kneading. This gives the flour time to absorb the water and softens the grains of whole wheat. There are some other ingredients that can be added to any recipe that also help make a softer texture: potato flakes (1/4 - 1/2 cup), honey (2-4 tablespoons), milk (replace some of the water), and butter (2-4 tablespoons) (all amounts are for a recipe making 2 loaves).

What other tricks do you have for getting softer, fluffier whole wheat loaves?

Related: How to Knead Dough: The Video

(Image: Emma Christensen)

Comments (18)

Yup, gluten flour rocks completely! I use 50 to 75g in a recipe that has a total of 600g of flour. My bread passes my kids' "folderover test". Most whole wheat bread will break in half when you fold a slice over on itself for a single-slice sandwich, but not mine!

Here is my recipe with instructional video. The one linked is oat bread but you can use all whole wheat flour except for the gluten flour.

p.s. in Canada you can get gluten flour at the Bulk Barn

This comes at a perfect time. I just tried making bread yesterday, for the third time, and I made the best bread brick I've ever seen. I followed the recipe perfectly, too! I don't know what went wrong. I have some gluten flour and plan to use it next time, even if the recipe doesn't ask for it.

Great tip! I know Whole Foods (aka Whole Paycheck) sells it in the US and the local boulangers in France sells it too.

http://twoburners.wordpress.com

I use whole wheat bread flour, which I understand has a higher gluten content than regular whole wheat flour (I'm not an expert on this by any means). I buy it in bulk at a local co-op health food store.

I use the Peter Reinhart recipe in his Whole Wheat Breads book, using the wild yeast starter. I have been making bread every week or so for the past year, and I think the starter really adds a nice flavor that I wasn't getting in my whole wheat bread before. You do have to plan a little to make the bread, but it is very little hands on time.

www.vegrun.blogspot.com

Another fan of Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads book here! I've tried 3 or 4 of the recipes so far with mostly outstanding results even without using a wild yeast starter. His process seems complicated at first, but it's not really, once you've done it a couple of times.

So if I choose to try the potato flakes to improve texture, do I just add the flakes, or do I substitute them for some of the flour?

Powdered milk also really helps the rise and softness of the bread. A number of King Arthur's recipes include this. It needs to be non-instant (so not Carnation), which I get at the health food store. For dough that yields two loaves (about 6 cups of flour, half WW and half bread flour), I use about a 1/3 cup powdered milk. Works great every time.

The 100% whole wheat sandwich bread from Peter Reinhardt's Whole Grain Breads book is a winner.
Whole wheat bread flour helps a lot, too, but vital wheat gluten will relieve the need for it if you can only get regular WW flour.

I make it as written with water vs. milk. It's actually lighter and fluffier WITHOUT the VWG, but IMO a bit too tender, so I add 2T.
I've also had good results with pre-soaking the whole wheat flour overnight...one of his techniques not used in this book but standard elsewhere.

Adding the vital wheat gluten is critical if you are going to stick with all whole-wheat flour. Creating a soaker with a portion of the flour for even an hour ahead of time makes a big difference, and a rest along the way helps. My go-to recipe for everyday sandwich bread is from Dave's Killer Bread (via Everyday Dish tv). Its a completely vegan loaf and just as soft as those I've added milk to.
http://www.everydaydish.tv/index.php?page=recipe&recipe=122

I agree with the gluten flour and with using a soaker (poolish)-- I mix 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup warm water, 1/2 tsp yeast in a bowl, cover with cling film, let it stand 2 to 10 hours. I think this is helpful more for developing flavour than for a light, fluffy texture.

For that, doing three rises instead of two helps a lot, in my opinion.

Properly shaping loaves so they have surface tension helps the rise too.

This is my standard, 2-loaf recipe.

4 1/2 C whole wheat flour, plus more for kneading
2 tsp salt
2 T gluten

2 C very warm water
2 1/2 tsp dry active yeast
2-4 T oil
2-4 T honey

Knead about 10 minutes. Make sure you don't add much flour in the last 5 minutes of kneading. Rise until doubled (60-90 minutes). Punch down, knead lightly, rise again until doubled (around 45 minutes).

Shape loaves or buns. Make sure the tops have surface tension when you shape them. Rise another hour or so.

Slash tops of loaves with a razor blade right before baking. Put in preheated 425F oven. Turn down to 325 after 10 minutes, bake another 20 minutes or so.

I use a combination of white and whole wheat flour, but what really helps make a softer loaf is replacing 1/2 cup of the water with milk that's been soured with 2 tsp vinager.

Thanks for all these great tips. It's great to know that we can make healthier bread easily.

Another option, maybe it's a bit cheeky to mention it, is to embrace the crusty and dense loaf and make a nice boule for dipping into steaming soup.

The whole wheat bread in Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day is really good and very easy - it uses vital wheat gluten as well. Also makes terrific hamburger buns.

I've been to all the health food sections in town (six or seven) and NONE of them carry wheat gluten. And all the store employees looked at me like I had six ears when I inquired. *sigh*

I can't believe what I am reading. Do any of you know where vital wheat gluten comes from? That's right, they derive it from wheat. So why on earth if I had whole wheat to start with would I need to purchase something that has originally been taken from wheat. The key to good wheat bread is all in the kneading, the more you knead it the more the gluten develops and thus the better texture you desire. Adding what is already there just seems like nonsense to me.

the added bonus of having VWG on hand is that you can make seitan when you're not baking with it!

You know, the recipes I have been using call for vital wheat gluten, and I'm still getting bricks. I'm using a bread machine, and all their whole wheat recipes call for vital wheat gluten, but all of them have turned out like bricks. Of course, I've recently discovered that they aren't calling for enough water, either, so maybe I should just abandon the recipes that came with the stupid machine.
As for where vital wheat gluten comes from, yeah, it comes from wheat. And yeah, if you knead enough you probably wouldn't need it. But if you want quick, simple bread, it's a good option. They even call for it in Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day and every bread recipe I've ever gotten out of Mother Earth News.
Fermenting your grains as suggested in Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon would probably also make the gluten more available, but how many of us have the time and space to ferment grains? Or the money to buy pre fermented grains? $10 a lb? No thank you!