Adventures in Bread Making: Soft Vegan Whole Wheat Bread

The search for homemade, vegan, healthy, whole what soft sandwich bread has come to a happy ending with a warm and delicious discovery!

Soft Vegan Whole Wheat Bread 

Things you'll need:

• 1/4 cup warm water

• 1 tbsp yeast

• 1/4 cup molasses

• 3 cups + 3 tbsp whole wheat flour

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil

• 2 tbsp almond milk

• 1/2 tsp salt

Pour the water into a large bowl and sprinkle the yeast over it. Add 1.5 tsp of molasses to the yeast-water and mix well. Add 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour and stir to combine. Loosely cover the bowl and set it in a dry warm place to rise (about 20-30 minutes). When you uncover the bowl, the bread should have risen to nearly twice its original size. Gently poke the dough down and add the rest of the molasses (3 tbsp + 1.5 tsp), the vegetable oil, almond milk, and salt. Stir to combine well (it will be VERY wet). Begin adding more flour, 1/4 cup at a time (I ended up adding about 1 cup total in this step). Stir the dough with a spoon while adding flour. When the dough pulls away from the sides, get ready to get dirty. (Wash your hands well.) Sprinkle 1/4 cup of flour onto the surface of a clean counter. Dump the sticky dough onto the flour and knead the flower in. Continue adding 1/4 cups of flour until the dough is elastic, smooth, and still a tiny bit sticky, but no longer sticking to your hands (I ended up adding 1/2 cup plus 3 tbsp of flour in this part).

Sprinkle a tiny bit of flour over the surface of the dough, and cover it all around. Shape the dough into a loaf by folding the sides of the dough under and smoothing the top. Grease a bread pan (about 8.5 in loaf pan). Place the dough in the pan and loosely cover. Allow it to rest for about 1 hour. The bread will rise again.

Preheat oven to 350º F. Remove coverings from bread pan, place the bread on the center rack and bake for 35 minutes. Allow the bread to cool completely before removing it from the pan.

 

Makes 16 slices, nutrition per 1 slice: Calories: 112.2, Total Fat: 2.2 g, Sat. Fat: 1.3 g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 0 g, Monounsaturated Fat: 0 g, Cholesterol: 0 mg, Sodium: 3.4 mg, Potassium: 81.8 mg, Total Carbs: 21.6 g, Dietary Fiber: 3 g, Sugars 2.9 g, Protein 3.3 g