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I’ve had several requests for my Mom’s rye whole wheat bread recipe. Mom bakes it all the time and it’s the same bread I showed you on Instagram (@natashaskitchen). The rye whole wheat flour make it a healthier bread and I feel so good about giving a warm buttered slice to my 3-yr old son (he’s in line just as soon as it comes out of the oven!). As an added bonus and because I really want you to succeed in making this bread, I’ve also included a complete photo tutorial for this recipe. So read on!
Quick breads like the no-knead artisan bread are gorgeous and are a great choice for dinner parties but they are best eaten the same day they are baked. My mom’s bread is one that keeps well in the fridge or freezer without becoming crumbly (if that makes any sense to you).
This recipe makes 2 loaves of bread. Eat one and freeze the other. My mom usually bakes 6 loaves and if all five of her girls (I have 4 sisters) stop by, she’s usually left with one loaf at the end of the day.
Watch How to Make Whole Wheat Bread:
This recipe is an all-day project (lots of effortless rising time) so it’s worth-while to double or even triple the recipe and freeze the extras for weeks of enjoyment. You do not need a bread-maker for this recipe. P.S. If you don’t have rye flour, you can substitute with more wheat flour.
Ingredients for Rye and Whole Wheat Bread:
2 1/4 cups luke warm water
1/2 Tbsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp active dry yeast
3/4 cup whole wheat flour *measured correctly
3/4 cup rye flour *measured correctly
3/4 cup better for bread flour *measured correctly
plus 2 1/2 cups better for bread flour *measured correctly
2 Tbsp canola oil plus more to grease counter and pan
*Watch our easy video tutorial on how to measure correctly
How to Make Rye and Whole Wheat Bread:
1. In a large kitchen aid mixer bowl, combine 2 1/4 cups warm water (about 100˚F), 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar and 1/2 Tbsp salt; stir to dissolve.
2. Sift the 3/4 cup wheat flour, 3/4 cup rye flour and 3/4 cup better for bread flour with 2 tsp yeast into the salted water. Do not discard anything left in the sifter (it’s the good stuff!); toss it into the batter. Whisk together until well blended. Let it rise on the counter uncovered for 3 hours, stirring the batter about once every hour. It will be bubbly.
3. Using the dough hook attachment add 1/2 cup Better for Bread flour until well blended, scraping down the bowl if needed. Blend in the rest of your Bread flour (2 cups) a heaping Tbsp at a time, letting the dough dissolve the flour in between each spoon (this takes about 20 min).
4. Once all the flour is incorporated, add 2 Tbsp canola oil. Let mix for an additional 20 more minutes on speed 2 with the dough hook or until dough is no longer sticking to your bowl. Note: after you add the oil it will look like it’s coming off the walls and then it will appear to get stickier, then towards the end of your 20 minutes, it will actually stop sticking to the walls as it mixes. Just let it do it’s thing and everything will work out ;). Remove dough hook and Let it rise in the bowl, uncovered, until double in volume.
5. Grease your bread pans, counter and fingers a little with the canola oil. Punch down the dough and transfer it onto the oiled counter
6. Pinch the dough in the center to form two sections with your hands. Grease your pan lightly with oil. Place dough into each prepared bread pan and mold the dough to the base of the pan (no gaps in the corners). Let it rise on the counter until 2 1/2 to 3 times in volume (about 1 1/2 hours). Bake at 360˚F for 55 minutes.
7. When done, brush the tops with butter as soon as bread comes out of the oven. Remove bread immediately from the pans and cool on a wire rack. If you leave bread in the pans, it will get moist from the steam in the pan. Once bread is just warm, butter up a slice of soft and delicous bread and enjoy. You deserve it!
Mom's Rye and Whole Wheat Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups luke warm water
- 1/2 Tbsp salt
- 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
- 2 tsp active dry yeast
- 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 3/4 cup rye flour
- 3/4 cup better for bread flour
- plus 2 1/2 cups better for bread flour
- 2 Tbsp canola oil plus more to grease counter and pan
Instructions
- In a large kitchen aid mixer bowl, combine 2 1/4 cups warm water (about 100˚F), 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar and 1/2 Tbsp salt; stir to dissolve.
- Sift the 3/4 cup wheat flour, 3/4 cup rye flour, and 3/4 cup better for bread flour with 2 tsp yeast into the salted water. Do not discard anything left in the sifter; toss it into the batter. Whisk together until well blended. Let it rise on the counter uncovered for 3 hours, stirring the batter about once every hour. It will be bubbly.
- Using the dough hook attachment add 1/2 cup better for bread flour until well blended, scraping down the bowl if needed. Blend in the rest of your bread flour (2 cups) a heaping Tbsp at a time, letting the dough dissolve the flour in between each spoon (this takes about 20 min).
- Once all the flour is incorporated, add 2 Tbsp canola oil. Let mix for an additional 20 more minutes with the dough hook on speed 2 or until dough is no longer sticking to your bowl. Note: after you add the oil it will look like it's coming off the walls and then it will appear to get stickier, then towards the end of your 20 minutes, it will actually stop sticking to the walls as it mixes. Just let it do it's thing and everything will work out ;). Remove dough hook and let it rise in the bowl, uncovered, until double in volume (45 min).
- Grease your bread pans, counter and fingers a little with the canola oil. Punch down the dough and transfer it onto the oiled counter.
- Pinch the dough in the center to form two sections with your hands. Grease your pan lightly with oil. Place dough into each prepared bread pan and mold the dough to the base of the pan (no gaps in the corners). Let it rise on the counter until 2 1/2 to 3 times in volume (about 1 1/2 hours). Bake at 360˚F for 55 minutes.
- When done, brush the tops with butter as soon as the bread comes out of the oven. Remove bread immediately from the pans and cool on a wire rack. If you leave bread in the pans, it will get moist from the steam in the pan.
I used this recipe to make bread last night and I must say, it was quite good if I may say so myself. I did tweak a few things to my tastes, though. I replaced one whole cup of the bread flour with flaxseed meal, and I used olive instead of canola oil (I don’t mind its flavor at all). The resulting dough was probably a little wetter than usual, which prompted me to add about 1/4 cup of extra bread flour. The dough still stuck to the sides of the bowl after several incremental additions, so I stopped and continued. The bread turned out soft and fluffy, and roasted, it has a great crunchiness. I’m definitely bookmarking this recipe. Thank you!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it and thank you for sharing your modifications. I’ll have to try your version! 🙂
i will want to try this recipe but i never used the “better for bread flour” do you use specific brand..?
Alana, I use “Gold Medal” brand. Let me know if you have any additional questions :).
Hi Natasha. I wanna know what’s in better for bread flour? Wheat or white flour, or a combo? Also, I don’t have bread pans…. do I need to invest in one or can I use something else? Thanks so much!
The baking time will be different for different sized pans. A bread pan will help the bread rise as it should. I’m not exactly sure what the differences are with the better for bread flour. I think that the big thing is a difference in the amount of gluten in the flour?
I would love to make this bread but don’t have a kitchen aid mixer. Is it possible to do it by hand? What would I have to do different if I were to do it by hand? Can’t wait to try this bread. Thanks.
Yes you can do it by hand, you just need to incorporate the flour with a spatula at step 3 and then knead the dough by hand, until it’s smooth and elastic and just barely sticking to the walls of the bowl.
Hey Natasha! I absolutely love your website and all your amazing recipes…I have a question about the mixer you’re using to make the bread dough. Can you tell me what brand you use and where did you get it from? Thanks in advance:)
We use the KitchenAid professional 6 Qt capacity. It’s the workhorse of my kitchen and makes baking so much easier! 🙂 We purchased ours online
Love your website great recipe
Can I use a hand mixer i have the kitchen aid 9 speed which is very strong
I don’t own a stand mixer
It’s best to do it by hand unless you have a mixer with a dough hook or it will break your mixer.
Hi Natasha,
Love you’re recipes!
In the ingredients list you mention two amounts of bread flour but in the directions you mention all purpose flour. Which is the correct type of flour to be used.
Thank you
Hi Tiffany, I’m more than happy to troubleshoot. We have whole wheat and rye flour posted in this recipe, no all-purpose flour. Was this comment possibly intended for another recipe?
While you do not have all-purpose flour incl. in your list of ingredients, in Step 3 of the actual instructions you do refer to all-purpose flour. I take it from your previous response that this should read better for bread flour?
Just want to clarify before investing a whole day in making this recipe.
BTW, love your other recipes I have tried so far.
Hi Rea, I apologize I didn’t realize I had written that. It should read Better for bread flour – that step is where I am incorporating the Bread flour. There is no all-purpose flour in this recipe. Thank you so much for asking. I have updated the recipe.
Dear Natasha,
I am so glad that I found your website.
Let you know that everything I have been making turns sooooooo delicious.
Yesterday I made the Easter bread, but I already make whole wheat bread, the white one also. OMG my house smells sooooo wonderful!
Thank you so much to share w us your talent for cooking.
Keep doing, you do an amazing job!
You are on a roll!! It sounds like I need to post more breads just for you! Make sure you try the baked piroshki with cabbage or apples. I think you’d LOVE them too! 🙂
Great recipe!
I’ve made it a few times now and it’ll probably be the main bread I bake from now on. Since I don’t know where my stand mixer is, I just do it all by hand which is a little more of a pain but I still get good results.
I have changed it a little to suit my process, with the main thing being the sponge. So the night before I bake:
1) I mix the 3 flours with the same amount of water, sugar, only 1/4 teaspoon of yeast, and don’t add the salt and leave it to ferment til I wake up.
2) The next morning, I add the salt, 2 tsp of yeast, 1 tbs of oil and mix.
3) I get 2 cups of bread flour and mix in 1 tablespoon of vital wheat gluten then add it to the sponge. When it pulls away from the bowl, I dump it onto the counter and knead it for 10 mins or so, slowly incorporating the last 1/2 cup of flour. When the last of the flour is incorporated and it starts to become tacky again, I add 1/2 tbs of the oil and keep kneading and continue adding the oil until it’s used up.
4) Oil the bowl, let rise for 1 hour, deflate and shape into loaves in bread pan, let rise for 1 hour and 30 mins then bake for 35-40 mins (in my oven) at 360F.
The wheat gluten makes the bread light and super soft, so I definitely recommend people trying it with that addition.
Definitely a keeper 😀 Now I’ll have to go around and try some of your other recipes~
I’m do glad you love the bread 🙂 I love that you turned it into an overnight method! Thanks for sharing your process with me.
I made these two loaves of bread today and I can truly say that they came out perfect following the recipe exactly…..and delicious. This will be my go-to recipe for home baked bread. I have yet to be disappointed by any of your recipes. Many thanks!
Thank you Zina for such a great review! I’m so happy you’ve had success with all the recipes you have tried. I hope to continue to WOW you 😉
Спасибо огромное, Наташа, за рецепт хлеба. Я много перепробовала рецептов, но ваш самый лучший. Очень вкусный и нежный хлебушек. Вашей маме благодарность за такой рецепт.
Olga
You are very welcome Olga, I will let my mom know and thank you for a good report :).
This recipe is great with a couple teaspoons of caraway seed to give it that “rye-ish” taste during step 3. Thanks for posting up this recipe!
I’ll have to try that next time I make the bread, thank you for the tip :).
Hi Natasha!
I stumbled upon your blog a few days ago, completely by accident, and am I glad I did! I just love what I have seen so far, and there are a few recipes I really want to try (already). Also, you take the time to answer every comment, that is so nice of you.
I started whit this bread, and my dough was very wet. I don’t know if it’s supposed to be like that, so I resisted the urge to add more flour. Should I have? The only thing I did different was using unrefined sugar and olive oil. The texture of the bread is kind of like an english muffin bread. But it is really tasty, so I plan on making it again.
Thank you
Funny coincidence, my husband just got back from Kiev. He was there for two weeks.
The change in ingredients might have made a small difference. It should be much softer and fluffier than english muffins. Add a few more Tbsp of flour next time. If it’s still really sticking to the bowl, you should add 2-3 Tbsp more flour and that should do the trick! 🙂
Hi Natasha,
I was wondering if you had a black bread recipe. I am looking for a bread that looks like the black bread that is normally done in the village in Ukraine.
Thank you!
I’m actually looking for a great one myself. I’m always on the lookout for something and really need to get back into experimenting! If you find one first, please let me know! 😉
Thank you for the recipe. I never baked bread myself but I really want to give it a try.
How do you film the recipe and take the pics at the same time? Do you only do recipes you plan on posting while someone is home to take pictures for you or what? I find this part to be very difficult for me since I do recipes during the day when my husband is at work so I’m left with taking the pictures myself:( It’s really hard because my hands are dirty while cooking and I constantly have to wash them to take pictures. How do you do this?
I wash them to take pictures. lol. It takes forever. For video filming, my husband is always there to help, but I do most of the step-by-step photography myself. With a really complicated recipe, I do recruit my hubby to help 🙂 I usually don’t video and photograph the whole recipe. This was an exception.
Oh, OK. Thank you for sharing.
Hey Natasha, it love this recipe but I was wondering if I can use the leftover whey from tv org instead of water and if it will turn out the same? Thanks in advance 🙂
I haven’t tested it myself, but my mom uses whey from time to time and it turns out great if not better :).
Hi Natasha,
I’m trying out this recipe right now. The dough is rising in the pan as I type. However it’s been in there for over an hour now but the surface of the dough is still very bumpy. Will they smooth out after baking like the ones on your picture? I did do this with a hand mixer(with the dough hooks) and beat 20 minutes after adding the oil. But I guess my arms were weaker than the stand mixer and couldn’t maintain a perfect circular motion while fighting the gluten. So my dough didn’t quite reach the unstick to the walls stage. Could that have been the reason?
It can be a little lumpy and that’s ok. Let me know how it turns out.
Would it work with no oil I can’t use any oil because of health reason.
Would I need to add something instead of the oil?
Can you use any kind of oil or all all oils off limits?
Hi! I was wondering if I could substitute the sugar with honey?
I haven’t tried that, but I think it’s a good idea and it could work 🙂
Honey’s big house at our house so I incorporate it everywhere- I’ll let you know how it comes out!
Our goal for this year is to try to transition to honey more. How else have you been able to use honey in your cooking successfully?
I made the bread yesterday using 1/4 cup of honey instead of sugar and it came out amazing! Absolutely delicious!
I’ll admit that I’m a bit of a health nut. One of the things that scares me the most is reading an ingredient list and not being able to pronounce words. If I can’t pronounce it and don’t know where it came from, then no way am I buying it for my family!
So about honey- I use it everywhere. Literally. When a recipe calls for sugar–use honey instead. It’s simple. Sugar is a sweetener, not an active agent in the baking process. Meaning, if you forget to add it to cake batter the cake will still rise beautifully and look great, but will taste bland. In some of my favorite dessert recipes, like carrot cake and cinnamon buns, I use honey and apple sauce to add sweetness and softness to the dough. I have great recipes if you want to try them 🙂 One of my weaknesses is coffee, although full of antioxidants and other goodness, it’s healthy in moderation which most people, like me of course, lack because it’s just so good 😉 Anyways, the only time I will use sugar, that is “Stevia sugar”, is in my coffee. Stevia is a plant known for its sweet leaves that produce a highly concentrated type of sugar. Therefore, you only use a little bit and don’t feel as bad. Another note about honey–if you’re going to switch over completely to honey, do it right away. It’s so much healthier, especially for kids! Also, use local honey. I’ve read so much about the positive effects of using honey from bees that pollinate locally. Your body will be more receptive to it since its already breathing and absorbing from you area. Depending on the time of year the honey can be light or dark in color but always thick in texture. If it’s too runny, your seller might have diluted the honey with water… watch out for that! Talking about the benefits of organic and healthy options is my passion- feel free to ask about anything anytime 🙂
Please please please send me recipes. I love to try out tried-and-true recipes from my readers. I was actually saying to my hubby that I want to switch over to honey as much as possible. It’s been around forever and it’s a much healthier option. We are going to buy two large jugs of honey locally this week and will start working with it more. Any other healthy/organic recipes you’d like to share with me, I’d love to try them. My email: Natashaskitchen@yahoo.com
I am wanting to try this recipe. I dont have rye flour and you mentioned wheat can be used instead. Do I use the same amount of wheat as I would have the rye to substitute.
Yes, substitute the same amount 🙂
Hi Natasha,
Just wanted to let you know this recipe is in constant rotation at our house. I bake it as a single artisan loaf in a preheated Dutch oven and it comes out with a fabulous crust. Today I’m going to try it as batard loaves on a perforated pan. Excellent bread! What culinary school did your mom go to?
🙂
Thanks for sharing that with me 🙂 I haven’t tried it in a dutch oven but now I really want to! I’m not sure which school she went to. I know it was in the Seattle area. I’ll have to ask her.