Recipe: Whole Wheat Vegan Bread

This is the simplest whole wheat bread recipe I have ever made and, after making it a couple of times, I have to say it is the tastiest I've ever made too. The original recipe, which you can see here, called for 1/2 cup of molasses, but even with mild flavor molasses, it was too much for me, it also used too much white flour for my liking. Below, I have the recipe with my tweaks.

Whole Wheat Vegan Bread
2 1/2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons active yeast
1 Tbs. mild flavor molasses
3 cups whole wheat flour
a little less than 1/2 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup nondairy milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 to 2 cups each unbleached white flour and whole wheat flour (this is in addition to the 3 cups listed above)

In a large bowl, combine warm water, yeast, and molasses, stir until well mixed. Add 3 cups whole wheat flour and stir until it begins to form a dough. Cover mixture and let rise in a dry place for 20 minutes- up to 1 day.

Once it has had time to rise, add agave nectar, vegetable oil, milk, and salt, stir until combined.

Begin adding remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time, alternating between whole wheat and white flour. After adding the first 2 cups of flour, it should be difficult to stir using a spoon, so place it on a lightly floured surface and kneed in the remaining dough- do not add in excess of 4 cups of flour. Dough should be soft and slightly sticky.

Split dough as desired. This recipe can make 2 loaves or 48 dinner rolls. Place split dough in greased pans or on greased baking sheets. Cover and let rise 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

For loaves, bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes. Cool in bread pans on a wire wrack for 10 minutes, then remove the bread from the pan and cool another 15-20 minutes before slicing to serve or store.

For dinner rolls, bake at 375 for 20 minutes. Cool for about five minutes before serving so it has time to soften.

*I froze the dinner rolls and thawed them to serve at a later time and they were still soft and delicious, we just heated them up in the microwave.