Wholewheat Bread Made with Oil Instead of Butter
Bread is a nutritious staple in many regions around the world, including the Caribbean. While growing up, it was Dad who baked bread every Saturday for my family of seven, while Mom baked mouthwatering cake and pastry treats.
In this blog, I will share with you my very easy bread recipe, as well as a simple trick to ensure that you always have fresh bread that does not go stale.
There are three main features of my homemade bread recipe. Firstly, it is bread made with oil instead of butter. Before I discovered that I could substitute butter with oil, I dreaded the butter process involved in baking bread. However, now that I have found my perfect butter substitute, I never buy bread because I bake bread nearly every week. Besides the fact that using oil makes the bread making process easier, I also found out that vegetable oil is better for your heart health. This was an added incentive for me to make the switch from butter to oil, since I pay very close attention to my health. Furthermore, baking brings back fond memories of Dad.
Figure 1: Three freshly baked wholewheat bread loaves in an aluminium baking tin
Secondly, this homemade bread is kneaded by hand and does not require an expensive bread mixer. I know that there are many people who don’t feel confident enough to knead bread by hand. However, with this easy bread recipe, anyone can become a bread-making guru.
Thirdly, this bread recipe uses wholewheat flour. We grew up eating white flour bread but as I grew older and became more conscious of my nutritional health, I read about the superb health benefits of whole grain. Thereafter, I introduced wholewheat flour into my bread baking. I want to warn you – your bread will be even more delicious than white flour bread with my whole wheat flour recipe!
Now let’s dive into making spongy-soft and delicious wholewheat bread with oil instead of butter.
Homemade Wholewheat Bread Recipe
Ingredients for Wholewheat Bread
4 cups White Flour
2 cups Wholewheat Flour
11 grams Instant Yeast
½ tbsp. Salt
2 cups Warm water
½ cup Vegetable Oil
½ tbsp. Vegetable Oil
Figure 3: Kneaded dough ball divided into three smaller dough balls
Preparation Method for Wholewheat Bread
§ Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl (white flour, wholewheat flour, instant yeast and salt).
§ Then thoroughly mix in the vegetable oil with the dry mixture.
§ Create a hole in the centre of the dry mixture.
§ Pour 1 cup of warm water into the hole at the centre of the dry mixture (see Figure 2 above) and mix by hand with the dry ingredients.
§ Pour in the remaining 1 cup of warm water and then knead the dry mixture and warm water together to form a large dough ball.
§ Rub ½ tablespoon of vegetable oil all over the large dough ball and put it back in the mixing bowl.
§ Place the mixing bowl, with the large doughball, in your unheated oven for 40 minutes in order to allow the doughball to rise.
§ While the doughball is leavening (or rising), grease an aluminium baking tin, with oil or butter, and set it aside for baking the bread loaves.
§ After 40 minutes, remove the risen bread dough from the oven and divide it into three equal pieces.
§ Roll out each of the three pieces of dough into a round dough ball (see Figure 3 above).
§ Then mold each dough ball into a smooth bread loaf. Each loaf should be about 7 inches long and 3 inches wide.
§ Place the three uncooked loaves of bread in your greased aluminium baking tin (see Figure 4 below).
§ Place the aluminium baking tin, with unbaked loaves, in your unheated oven for a further 40 minutes in order to allow the uncooked bread loaves to rise some more.
§ After 40 minutes, set your oven temperature to 350 degrees, light your oven and bake the bread loaves for 15 minutes.
§ After 15 minutes, open the oven and turn your aluminium baking tin around 180 degrees in the oven, so that it faces the opposite direction, and put it back in the oven for a further 15 minutes. This ensures that the bread is evenly baked.
§ After 15 minutes, turn of the oven and let the bread finish baking in the oven for a further 3 minutes.
§ After three minutes, open the oven and remove the aluminum baking tin, with the fully baked bread loaves, from the oven.
§ Separate the bread loaves and place them on a cooling rack for one and a half hours to cool down.
§ Then enjoy a slice or two of freshly baked wholewheat bread with whatever you like.
Total Time: 2 hours and 13 minutes
Preparation Time: 1 hr. and 40 mins. [1 hr. & 20 mins. leavening] + [20 mins. kneading]
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Additional cooking/cooling down time in oven: 3 minutes
Yield: 3 loaves of bread
Servings: 30 to 33
Recipe Note: Each loaf of bread yields approximately 10 to 11 slices.
Figure 5: Three fully baked whole wheat bread loaves and one partially sliced loaf
How to Keep Your Wholewheat Bread Perpetually Fresh
Once my bread is cool, I normally enjoy a few slices with melted butter and cheese. Yes! I don’t know why but I always must eat the first set of bread with butter and cheese. Then, I usually place the remainder of the loaf in a covered dish in the refrigerator for use during the week. Finally, I typically place the remaining two loaves of bread in a freezer bag which I put in the freezer.
Once the bread in the refrigerator is finished, I would then take one of the frozen bread loaves from the freezer and put it in a covered dish in the refrigerator overnight to defrost. Then, the next morning, I am able to toast my bread and use it as normal. If you follow this freshness tip, your bread will taste and smell as fresh as the first day you baked it.
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***Photo Credit & Copyright: All photos belong to the author of this blog, Heidi Vincent a.k.a. The Catholic Contributor and should not be copied or used without permission.
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