Better than Cake: Homemade White Sandwich Bread (or Rolls)

We usually make and eat 100% whole wheat bread, but occasionally I make white bread for a special treat. We use it for French toast, for "buns" for black bean burgers, for grilled cheese and other sandwiches. Straight out of the oven with butter it is better than a slice of cake. I'm also including how to make rolls. Who knew it was so easy to make fresh rolls using a bread recipe? Probably everyone but me.

I got this recipe from a friend at church. She brought me dinner and a fresh loaf of bread after my third baby. I think it is just wonderful to bring new moms or anyone who needs a little extra TLC homemade bread. I have made a few alterations to her recipe (cut the sugar) and also filled in a few details (kneading time, etc.) by consulting my tried-and-true America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook.

After making 100% whole wheat bread for years, I have to say, white bread is downright easy. So forgiving and no need to worry about getting a decent rise. If you find the thought of baking your own bread a little daunting, try making the rolls. They're quite forgiving.

White Sandwich Bread (or Rolls)

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How to Turn Your Bread Loaf Recipe into a Roll Recipe: 100% Whole Wheat Honey Rolls

I recently made an important discovery: it is super easy to turn a bread loaf recipe into a roll recipe. I volunteered to bring rolls to a friend's house for dinner, forgot to buy them, and not wanting to run to the store just for rolls, decided I'd just go ahead and try making some from my favorite recipe for white bread (which I'll post next week). They were super easy and a huge success. We had to ration them out to the hungry wolves children at dinner. Why are rolls so much more appealing than a slice of bread? Is it the texture of the exterior and interior, the just-the-right-size portion, the compact shape? I don't know, but I know kids and adults alike love them.

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How to Make a Beautifully Risen Loaf of 100% Whole Wheat Bread

I've been reading Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day. I've only made it through the first chapter ("Baking Basics"), but I've already picked up a few tips that have helped me with my bread baking.

1. Use the minimum amount of yeast possible.
Now I use 2T of yeast instead of 2T + 2 t for two loaves. I have been known to fudge up the amount of yeast to try to speed things along. Now I stick with 2 T.

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100% Whole Wheat Honey Bread Recipe

This recipe is an update of a recipe first published here.

I've been making four loaves of whole wheat bread about twice a month for close to two years now. I even made it through the first trimester of my last pregnancy, a newborn baby, and a couple of hot summers (sans a/c) without missing a step. Here is an update to show you what I've learned and how I've tweaked the recipe over the last dozens of batches.

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Homemade 100% Whole Wheat Honey Bread (without a bread machine)

A few months ago, once the weather turned colder, I decided to try making my whole wheat bread with a standing mixer and oven instead of a bread machine.  Now that I had proven to myself that I was actually going to make all of our own bread, I was willing to invest in some equipment.  Making my bread using a mixer and oven has several advantages over making bread in a bread machine: 

• My bread machine was one of the final holdouts of Teflon in my kitchen, and its nonstick coating was already showing signs of wear.  Now I make plastic-free bread by mixing the dough in a stainless steel bowl and baking the bread in my glass Pyrex loaf pans.*
• By using a mixer and oven, I have greater flexibility in the cooking process.  For example, if the weather is cold and the bread is rising more slowly, I allow the bread a longer rise.
•  I can make several loaves of bread at once (and freeze most of the loaves), instead of a loaf of bread every few days.
• A loaf of bread made in a loaf pan in the oven is just more aesthetically pleasing than the loaves that come out of the bread pan of a bread machine.  And now that I have mastered the mixer/oven method, it will be easy to use the dough for other things, like rolls.

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I Love My Bread Knife

If you are going to make all of your own bread, including bread for sandwiches, you will want to have a very good bread knife.  I love my Victorinox Wavy Bread Knife, top rated by Cook's Illustrated and not too expensive.


This post is part of Things I Love Thursday.

Posts in the series -- Lazy Person's Guide to Homemade Bread:
Part 1 -- 5 Steps to Get You Started
Part 2 -- Homemade bread even cheaper (buy in bulk)
Part 3 -- Vegan whole wheat bread
Part 4 – Additional bread supplies (nice but not necessary)
Coming Soon:  Part 5 -- Special Treats (white bread, rolls, etc.)

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Lazy Person's Guide to Homemade Bread (Part 5) -- Special Treat: White Buttermilk Bread

Photo from allrecipes.com

It's summer! And where I live, it's hot, and there's no A/C.  The bread machine is a beautiful thing in the summer.  Fresh bread without heating up your entire kitchen.  If you put the bread machine in your garage, it doesn't heat up your house one bit!

We usually make and eat 100% whole wheat bread, but occasionally I make white bread for a special treat.  We use it for French toast, for "buns" for black bean burgers and for sandwiches.  Straight out of the oven with butter it is better than a slice of cake.

Bread Machine White Buttermilk Bread
1 1/8 c warm water (45 sec. microwave)
1 T oil/ butter
3 T honey
1 1/2 t salt
3 c + 2 T white flour
1/4 c powdered buttermilk (I use Bob’s Red Mill)
2 t yeast

Add all ingredients in the order listed.  Check dough after first kneading – should be moist and sticky. Add 1T water or flour if necessary. I would err on the side of wet.  This particular dough never really forms into a ball, but just looks like a doughy mass until it's baking. 

Basic cycle, 1.5 lb. loaf, light crust (take it out 5-10 minutes early if you have the chance). I have a Sunbeam/Oster bread maker (which is the lowest end one you can buy).

This post is part of Works for Me Wednesday.

Posts in the series -- Lazy Person's Guide to Homemade Bread:
Part 1 -- 5 Steps to Get You Started
Part 2 -- Homemade bread even cheaper (buy in bulk)
Part 3 -- Vegan whole wheat bread
Part 4 – Additional bread supplies (nice but not necessary)
Part 5 -- A Special Treat: Buttermilk White Bread

What is your favorite summer recipe?

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Lazy Person's Guide to Homemade Bread (Part 4) -- Homemade Bread Supplies

The following bread supplies are nice but not necessary.  To learn how to start making your own bread in 5 easy steps, read this post (awesome whole wheat bread recipe included!).


Electric grain mill: $30 - $200+
I have a very low-end grain mill (no longer available) that I purchased at the supermarket for less than $30. It is noisy, has a small capacity bowl, and blows flour around. But it works just fine for me! I grind my flour in the garage on top of the dryer and clean up the loose flour every few months. I used to grind around 15 cups at once, and never had any trouble with it going rancid before I used it all up within a few weeks. I have heard that whole wheat loses 90% of nutritional value within 24 hours of grinding. This is the kind of claim you can find all over the Internet, but I've never seen any hard data or reputable source that backs up the claim. All food loses nutritional value over time, but I'm guessing my 2-week old flour is still fresher than store-bought. Benefits of grinding your own wheat include:

• you will have very fresh flour
• you can buy wheat berries, which have a shelf-life of 30+ years, in bulk. I go through 25 pounds of wheat berries in about 3 months
• cheaper
• you can grind other stuff into flour too, like rice, millet, barley (I grind rice, millet and barley to make infant cereal)

Bread machine: $50-$200 new, $10+ on Craig’s List
Currently I own this low-end machine which I got for $10 brand new off of Craig's List. I would love to own this bread machine, which is very highly rated by Consumer Search. Someday. I am watching for it on Craig's List. Or maybe eventually I'll figure out that whole artisan-bread-in-5-minutes business and make all my bread in the oven.


Good bread knife
If you are going to make all of your own bread, including bread for sandwiches, you will want to have a very good bread knife.  I love my Victorinox Wavy Bread Knife, top rated by Cook's Illustrated and not too expensive.



Bread slicing guide
My sister has one of these.  With a good bread knife, I personally find it unnecessary.



Container or bag for bread 
We use a Tupperware case intended for CDs.  I find it easier to take the lid on and off the CD case than to deal with a plastic bag and twist tie.



Food Scale: $10 - $15
I bought a cheap one at IKEA.  It's more accurate to weigh rather than measure (with a cup) flour.  Home-grinding also tends to produce less finely ground flour than store-bought flour.  I also just find weighing flour easier than scooping and leveling it.  It's pretty easy (and consistent) to measure wheat berries, however, if you are grinding berries for each loaf of bread.


What are your favorite bread accessories?


Posts in the series -- Lazy Person's Guide to Homemade Bread:
Part 1 -- 5 Steps to Get You Started
Part 2 -- Homemade bread even cheaper (buy in bulk)
Part 3 -- Vegan whole wheat bread
Part 4 – Additional bread supplies (nice but not necessary)
Part 5 -- A Special Treat: Buttermilk White Bread

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Top 10 Reasons to Make Your Own Bread

1. Deliciousness
Very few things are more delicious than hot bread right out of the oven (slathered in butter), in my humble opinion.

2. Cheaper
You can save a lot of money by buying your ingredients in bulk.  Even if you don’t buy in bulk, you will definitely save money.

3. Fresh and Nutritious
In general, food loses nutritional value over time, so your fresh bread is super nutritious.

4. You can make it exactly the way you want it
Do you want 100% whole wheat bread?  Do you want multigrain bread with oatmeal and millet? Do you want your bread to be high in fiber, gluten-free, a little sweet or a little sour?  Do you want your bread sweetened with honey, sugar, or maple syrup?  Making your own bread makes you the master of your carb universe.  All you fellow control freaks will appreciate that.

5. Know your ingredients
Here are the ingredients of my whole wheat honey bread:
soy milk, canola oil, honey, salt, whole wheat, gluten, yeast

Here are the ingredients of Sara Lee’s Delightful 100% whole wheat bread: Water, Stone Ground Whole Wheat Flour, Wheat Gluten, Cottonseed Fiber, Yeast, Brown Sugar, Contains 2% or Less Of Each Of the Following Salt, Vegetable Oil (Soybean Oil, and or Cottonseed Oil), Yeast Nutrients (Monocalcium Phosphate, Calcium Sulfate, Ammonium Sulfate), Dough Conditioners (May Contain One or More Of the Following Mono and Diglycerides, Ethoxylated Mono and Diglycerides, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Calcium Peroxide), Honey, Wheat Bran, Wheat Protein Isolate, Sulfiting Agents, Vinegar, Natural Flavor, Soy Lecithin, Guar Gum, Sucralose, Cornstarch, L-Cysteine, Sorbic Acid, and Calcium Propionate (Preservatives)

6. Easy and convenient
In my house, it is a national emergency if we run out of bread. If I notice at 4 pm that we are running out of bread, it is honestly easier to take 5 minutes to put the ingredients in the bread maker (7 minutes if I hadn’t cleaned the pan since the last loaf), and have bread 3 hours later than to load my children in their car seats and go to the supermarket.

7. Even the mistakes taste good
One time I forgot to add yeast to my buttermilk white bread.  My husband said it was his favorite loaf ever.  When I was getting my recipes right, sometimes the bread was a little brick-like, or the top would fall in and be concave.  You know what?  It still tasted good.

8. Your children will eat it
My picky toddler loves my whole wheat honey bread.  If you let your picky eater push the start button on your bread maker, he or she will most certainly eat the bread that comes out of it.

9.  Fill your home with the smell of baking bread
Some folks find it easier to get out of bed in the morning when the house is filled the aroma of baking bread.

10. Folks will be impressed by your domesticity
And, in my case, might overlook what a poor housekeeper I am.

Interested in making your own bread?  Check out my Lazy Person's Guide to Homemade Bread:
Part 1 -- 5 Steps to Get You Started
Part 2 -- Homemade bread even cheaper (buy in bulk)
Part 3 -- Vegan whole wheat bread
Coming Soon:  Part 4 – Additional bread supplies (nice but not necessary)
Coming Soon:  Part 5 -- Special Treats (white bread, rolls, etc.)

This post is part of Top Ten Tuesday and Works for Me Wednesday.

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Lazy Person's Guide to Homemade Bread (Part 3) -- Vegan Whole Wheat Bread

I personally love love love my whole wheat honey bread that I make in my bread maker (find the recipe in this post).  Because of that no-honey-before-one-year-old business, I tried making my bread with sugar instead of honey so I could give it to the baby, but it was so sad in comparison to my usual bread that I couldn't make the switch.  My sister, however, is vegan and makes a delicious loaf of whole wheat bread with NO HONEY!  Here is her amazingly nutritious and delicious recipe (warning: this bread is very filling).

Natalie’s Vegan Whole Wheat Bread

Add ingredients into bread machine in the following order:
2 1/8 cups water (room temp)
1 tablespoon yeast
2 tablespoons white sugar
3-4 tablespoons vital wheat gluten *
      (* if needed – depends on protein content of wheat)
2+ teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce or oil
1/2 cup flaxseed (ground)
3 cups high protein whole wheat (ground)

Makes a very large loaf, too large for many bread machines. Natalie uses a Breadman Bread Machine.

NOTE: If a very high protein wheat is not available, more wheat gluten will need to be added to the wheat flour. Natalie buys a 17% protein whole wheat at the Bosch kitchen center. Find more suggestions for buying wheat berries in this post.

What is your favorite whole wheat bread recipe?

Posts in the series -- Lazy Person's Guide to Homemade Bread:
Part 1 -- 5 Steps to Get You Started
Part 2 -- Homemade bread even cheaper (buy in bulk)
Part 3 -- Vegan whole wheat bread
Part 4 – Additional bread supplies (nice but not necessary)
Part 5 -- A Special Treat: Buttermilk White Bread

This post is part of Works for Me Wednesday.

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Lazy Person's Guide to Homemade Bread (Part 2) -- Homemade Bread Even CHEAPER by buying in bulk

Once you get in the groove with making your own bread, you'll want to buy in bulk to save yourself some money.  Here is where I buy my ingredients.

• Organic whole wheat berries (which I grind myself into wheat): Azure Standard for about $12/50 pound bag.  My sister buys her wheat at a Bosch kitchen center.  It is more expensive but also has very high (17%) protein-content, which means she doesn't have to add any gluten to her recipe.  You can buy 50 pounds of whole wheat for about $50 (including shipping) from Honeyville Grain, which is probably about the same as the Whole Foods bulk bins.  Anybody know other good places to get wheat berries?  It might not be a great idea to buy whole wheat flour in bulk since whole wheat flour goes rancid after a while and you'd have to store it in the fridge/freezer.  More on grinding your own wheat in a future post.

• Cow's milk or soy milk: I don't buy this in bulk.  If you want to use powdered milk + water instead of milk, you can probably buy that in bulk.
• Salt: I don't buy this in bulk.  You don't use that much anyway and salt is pretty darn cheap regardless.

• Honey: I used to buy honey at Costco. Since reading about honey laundering, I only buy local honey directly from the producer. Honey has an indefinite shelf life but may crystallize after a while.
• Gluten: Bob's Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten, online or at Whole Foods.
• Active Dry Yeast: Costco (about $5 for 1 pound, which is about one million times cheaper than buying yeast in those puny jars at the supermarket).  I store it in a mason jar in the freezer.

Where do you buy your bread ingredients?


Posts in the series -- Lazy Person's Guide to Homemade Bread:
Part 1 -- 5 Steps to Get You Started
Part 2 -- Homemade bread even cheaper (buy in bulk)
Part 3 -- Vegan whole wheat bread
Part 4 – Additional bread supplies (nice but not necessary)
Part 5 -- A Special Treat: Buttermilk White Bread

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