Whole meal bread are higher in fiber and considered more nutritious than white bread which are using refined grains, which have been processed to remove the bran and germ.
Whole meals flour contains the germ, endosperm, and bran. The bran, which is the hard, outer layer, is high in fiber. The bran and germ also contain protein, fat, vitamins, minerals, and beneficial plant compounds, while the endosperm is mostly starch .
This light wholemeal bread recipe combines both white bread flour and wholemeal flour. This makes the texture of the bread slightly lighter than 100% wholemeal bread. It is suitable for those who are beginning to transition from consuming white bread to wholemeal. By incorporating white bread flour into the dough, it makes it easier for us knead it until gluten has been developed.
In most recipe, I tend to substitute ingredients with healthier alternative. For example, I substitute butter with extra virgin olive oil because I am reducing the intake of saturated fat in my diet and olive oil has a higher mono-saturated and poly-saturated fat which is good cholesterol (HDL). You may also substitute butter with other types of healthier fat such as sunflower oil or canola oil. Using olive oil will give a deeper flavour for the bread which I love, but feel free to use other type of oil that wouldn’t change the taste of the bread if you preferred so. Ideal conversion is 2 tbsp of butter = 1 3/4 tbps of olive oil but since the quantity used in home made bread recipe is small, it doesn’t make that much different if I substitute with same quantity as butter (2:2).
For sugar, I use jaggery powder which is a kind of unrefined sugar similar to brown sugar. For salt, I use Himalayan salt as it contains higher amount of minerals compared to normal salt. Table salt contains added iodine while Himalayan doesn’t. However, there’s no significant difference between both and it is up to your personal preference.
You may shape the dough into loaf (using loaf pan) or if you are not using pan, boule (French word which means ball) or batard (oval shape) are the most common shape of bread. In the video, I demonstrated how to shape into boule . For shapping batard, check out this video.
Light Wholemeal Bread
Equipment
- Bread Scraper
- Oven
Ingredients
- 350ml / 1.5 cup water
- 350g / 3 cups wholemeal bread flour
- 150g / 1 ⅓ cup white bread flour
- 30ml / 2 tbsp skimmed milk powder
- 7.5ml / 1.5 tsp salt
- 10ml / 2 tsp sugar
- 25g / 2 tbsp butter/ olive oil
- 7.5ml / 1.5 tsp easy bake dried yeast
Instructions
Bread Machine Instructions
- Pour the water into the bread machine pan. If the instructions for your bread machine specify that the yeast is to be placed in the pan first, reverse the order in which you add the liquid and dry ingredients to the pan
- Sprinkle over both flours ensuring that the water is completely covered. Add the skimmed milk powder. Add the salt, sugar and butter in separate corners of the bread pan. Make a small indent in the centre of the flour and add the yeast
- Set the bread machine to the white/basic setting, medium or light crust. Size 750g for medium. Press Start.
- Remove the bread at the end of the baking cycle. Turn out to a wire rack.
Hand-knead Instruction
- If kneading on a table, sprinkle both flour forming a well with indent in the centre. Add water little by little careful not to break the well. Cover the water with flour. If using a bowl, reverse the order by adding in water first, then sprinkle flours on top of it.
- Add skimmed milk, sugar and yeast. Add salt in separate corner. Then mix them together using a scrapper. Scrap the scattered ingredients back to the dough. If you are kneading on a table, continue to add the remaining water by adding it little by little.
- Knead the dough until has form a ball. Add in butter/olive oil. Keep kneading for another 30 minutes until it has form a smooth ball and gluten has been formed.
- Slice a tiny portion of the dough and perform window test (refer to the video).
- Shape the dough into a ball. Cover the dough and let it bulk ferment for 1 hour until doubled in size, ideally in a warm weather
- Punch the dough and flatten it. Shape the dough into desired shape. Then cover and proof for 40 minutes.
- Score the top of the bread and glaze with water or milk.
- Dust with flours or sprinkle oats or seeds on top the dough (optional).
- Preheat the oven at 180°C and bake the bread for 40 minutes.
- Remove the bread from the oven and turn out to a wire rack to cool the bread
- Slice the bread and serve with toppings or as sandwich
Video
Notes
- Another option for a lighter brown bread is to replace the wholemeal bread flour with brown bread flour. This contains less bran and wheatgerm than wholemeal flour, making it lighter
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Servings 12.0 slices | |
| Amount Per Serving | |
| calories 155 | |
| % Daily Value * | |
| Total Fat 2 g | 4 % |
| Saturated Fat 1 g | 6 % |
| Monounsaturated Fat 0 g | |
| Polyunsaturated Fat 0 g | |
| Trans Fat 0 g | |
| Cholesterol 4 mg | 1 % |
| Sodium 299 mg | 12 % |
| Potassium 1 mg | 0 % |
| Total Carbohydrate 29 g | 10 % |
| Dietary Fiber 3 g | 11 % |
| Sugars 1 g | |
| Protein 5 g | 10 % |
| Vitamin A | 14 % |
| Vitamin C | 0 % |
| Calcium | 2 % |
| Iron | 3 % |
| * The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA | |
