
Table of Contents
Brown Bread is definitely healthier than the APF bread or white bread as it uses whole wheat flour and I am so thrilled to share this bread recipe with you all.

I have been trying whole wheat bread much before than I made APF bread. Yes, that long. I was getting decent looking breads and I could have uploaded those recipes too, just like I see so many on internet. But I wasn’t 100 % satisfied with it. It was dense and sometimes felt like undone, even after baking them for so long. I have tried them like so many times because I didn’t want to just upload a recipe but really want it to come out good for you all.
So, until I got here to the texture that I have now in my brown bread, I kept working on it. I wanted it to come close to the APF bread. That light texture and perfect holes. Though there is a difference between an APF bread and a brown bread but still I feel that I have come very close.

Understanding Brown Bread
The whole wheat flour which is used in brown bread has the maximum percentage of protein, among all the flours, which form gluten when mixed with water. So we have to be careful while adding water in the brown bread. We need a little more water for whole wheat bread than we need for APF bread to hydrate the flour and help gluten to form.
So, you can experiment with your APF bread recipe and try and make a brown bread, by adding a little more moisture in the dough…but how much more? That you’ll have to experiment and see. Till that time, try out this recipe and let me know how it came out for you.

Important Tips for Brown Bread
1.Flour – Every flour is different. So it is important to try to stick to one type or brand of flour for baking breads. I am saying this because in India, normally many families get the whole wheat flour directly from the flour mills. Many have their own farms and use the grains grown in the field. So that flour, coming straight from a flour mill will be different from the one sold in the packets in the markets.
The difference mainly would be in the capacity of the flour to absorb water and the quantity of bran in the flour (Do sieve your flour and separate the bran). So it becomes very important to know your flour before you use it. I have used store bought whole wheat flour for this brown bread.
2. Water or Milk – In my Ladi Pav recipe, I have used, water only for kneading the dough and here also I have used only water. A lot of my readers have asked me if they can use milk and water for that recipe. Well, yes you can. It will just give a little different texture, in terms of lightness. That’s all. I personally like to use only water when I want a light and not very rich bread.

3. Fat – Fat weakens the gluten in dough and hence it is very important to know, when to add the fat and how much? Especially in brown bread where its kind of little difficult to get a light texture, adding a lot of fat should be avoided or else we will get a dense textured bread. One more reason why I don’t use milk. So, unless you have kneaded the dough for the brown bread for sometime, just don’t add butter to it.
4. Instant Yeast or Dry Active Yeast – You can use any of these yeasts. If you use instant yeast, like I have, use the quantity mentioned here. If you use the dry active yeast, then increase the quantity of yeast by 25%.
It is always a good idea to proof your yeast before using it, as that ensures that it has not died and will work good in the dough. If it doesn’t bubbles up, discard it and use a new one.
5. Kneading – It is an important step in bread baking. You can not hurry this step. If you are kneading with hands, do it for at least 18-20 minutes. With hand blender, I took almost 12-14 minutes for the complete kneading part. And with stand mixer it will be roughly around 10 min. To read more about kneading , do read my APF bread recipe.
6. Texture – The texture of dough is what you should pay attention to. Depending upon the ingredients quality, you may have to add 2-3 tbsp more of flour or water and that is absolutely okay. What you should not miss, is the texture of dough. How sticky is it? How much rise after 1st proofing and then 2nd ? All these things matter a lot in getting a perfect bread out of your oven.

Some other interesting recipes from my blog and youtube channel;
- Crunchy Samosa, market style
- Strawberry Ice cream Recipe
- Sabudana Khichdi
- Danish Butter Cookies
- Karachi Biscuits (tutty-frutty biscuits)
- Eggless Chocolate Cookies
- Red Velvet Cake
- Homemade Butter cream recipe
Recipe Video of Brown Bread
Ingredients
- Whole Wheat Flour – 2 cup (240 gm) + 2 – 3 tbsp (15-40 gm, if required)
- Water – 1 cup (240 ml) + 2-3 tbsp
- Sugar – 1 tbsp
- Dry Instant Yeast – 1/2 tsp
- Butter – 1 tbsp (at room temp) + 1-2 tbsp for greasing and brushing
- Salt – 1/2 tsp
Method
1.Take 1 cup luke warm water in a bowl. Add sugar and yeast in it and mix well. Cover and leave it for about 10 min to bubble up.



2. After 10 min, when yeast is all foamy and ready to use, take 2 cup flour in a separate bowl and add salt and mix. To this flour, add the yeast mixture and mix with a spatula or spoon. Mix it nicely. No dry flour should be left. At this stage you can add 1 -2 tbsp of water if required. Once mixed nicely, leave the dough covered, for about 15 min.




3. After 15 min, use hand blender or stand mixer and knead the dough. After about 7-8 min of kneading add 1 tbsp butter (soft at room temp). Incorporate this butter nicely in the dough. At his stage, you may use 1 -2 tbsp of flour, if required. I have used about 1 tbsp flour while final kneading. Please watch the video for a clear understanding of this step.



4. After about 12 minutes of kneading, collect the dough and bring it on the kitchen surface. It will be sticky to handle and that’s okay. Just grease the bowl and transfer back the dough in the bowl for 1st proofing. Cover it with a lightly wet kitchen towel and let it sit in a warm place to rise to double of its size. It may take anywhere from 45 min to 1 & 1/2 hour. My dough doubled up in 45 min.



5. After it is double in size, degas the dough and knead just for a minute in the bowl only.


6. Now, take it out on a floured surface and using a rolling pin, roll it into a rectangular shape. Remember to flour your rolling pin too. Also you can dust the dough a little in between if it sticks a lot.

7. Now, shape it into a log by rolling it back. Pinch the ends of the dough to seal them.


8. Put it in a greased bread tin, with the pinched side down. Cover with the kitchen towel and keep in a warm place for 2nd proofing.

9. After about 30 min, the dough will rise till the rim of the tin. Brush it very gently with butter and bake it in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees Celsius for about 35 minutes. The time may vary according to your oven settings. I have baked this brown bread in microwave convection mode.

10. Once it is done, brush it with butter when it is still hot. Leave it in the tin for about 5-7 minutes and then de-mould it. Cover it with a lightly wet kitchen towel and let it cool down completely. Slice it and enjoy the 100% whole wheat bread.


11. To get this type of texture in bread, add 2-4 tbsp more water while kneading. The dough will then be quite sticky and kind of unmanageable. Also, while shaping the dough, don’t roll into log or loaf shape. Just put it in the baking tin without shaping. It will rise to double the size. Then bake as mentioned above. You will get a beautiful honeycomb structure in the bread.

I would love to hear from you if you try this brown bread recipe. Do mention it in my comments section how you liked it or if you made any changes in it. Also if you make this and share on social networking sites, remember to add #flavourhomebysutiksha and tag me there, so that even I can appreciate your efforts.
You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Mix to get my blog updates regularly. You can also SUBSCRIBE to my blog to get the new recipes directly in your inbox, “from my palate to yours”.
Hi, thanks for the recipe. Was waiting for this. Wanted to check … what’s the size of the pan you have used and secondly, would the temperature setting and baking time be the same in an OTG ?
Hi Sandhya
Thank you for reading the blog.
Tin size 9 * 3.5 * 3.5
Temperature yes
Timings may vary… check if not done in 35 min…keep for 5 min more
Maa’m what is the size of tin you used for this
Hi Ninny
Thank you for reading through and plz call me Sutiksha.
Tin size is 9 * 3.5 * 3.5
What is the cup size
Hi Ankita,
Cup size is standard 240 ml .
It measures 120 gm flour in 1 cup
Nice recipe.. In which rack.. Do I need to keep in microwave
Hi Smita,
thank you so much.
Middle rack.. if you see a lot of browning…transfer to the lower one
Your recipe is just awesome made it yesterday.. never liked whole-wheat bread better then this…thank you so much
Hi Rennu
Thank you so much! I am glad that you came back here to mention how the bread turned out.
I know the feeling…baking something as healthy as a whole wheat bread is such a great feeling!! Now sandwiches just got completely healthy!
Happy Baking to you!
Hi
Will adding Vital Wheat gluten help and in how much quantity..Is Aashiwaad select atta good for this recipe.
Hi RUchi,
I haven’t tried adding gluten to the flour. I used normal Whole Wheat Atta of Patanjali brand. So, i guess any whole wheat atta should work. Just sieve it to remove any bran it has.
Thank you!!
Hi,
Tried this recipe today. Came out awesome. I especially liked the way you have explained everything in detail before the recipe. So it was great to learn first and then apply it when I began the actual process. Thank you again ma’am…
Love and luck,
Paridhi
Hi Paridhi
I am so glad that you were able to make the bread and all the tips and important points helped you.
Also thankful to you for coming back here and sharing your experience with me and my readers.
Thanks a lot!
happy baking!
Hi Sutiksha, thank you so much for Recipe. Made it three four times, it’s like store bought bread. My famil liked it very much.
Can I use this recipe for making ladi pav or burger buns.
Thank you
Hi
I am so glad that you liked the recipe. Its indeed satisfying to know that in these difficult times I am able to spread the value of home cooked food.
Yes you can try that. Do keep an eye on the time as it will vary for each bread.
Thank you !
Thank you so much for quick response. I will try to make ladi pav and update you about the result
Thank you once again
You’re welcome!
Hi Sutiksha,
Thank you so much for the recipe. I made this today using Ashirwad multi grain atta. It took some more water than the measurements. As you said, your video helped immensely, with how the kneaded dough should look. That is how I figured out that more warm water is needed while kneading the first time. The bread’s texture and softness turned out to be amazing. It tasted somewhat like pizza crust. I am wondering what changes may I need to make for it to taste more like bread. Any advise is appreciated. Thank you again!
Hi Madhu,
I am glad that you tried the bread and it came out nice for you. Also thanks for going through my blog.
Regarding the bread tasting like a pizza dough, then I would say the ingredietns are same and the process too is same for both…hence similarity in the texture and taste will be there. I have a pizza dough recipe here if you’ll go through it you’ll get a clear picture of what am I saying. Still you can play around the dough by changing the liquids that you add, like water, milk…replace these with each other and you’ll see the difference. Also you can add eggs too in the bread dough. I have yet to publish a bread recipe with eggs but you can try.
Hope all this helps!!
Thank you
And yeah… I forgot to mention if you are looking like market bought bread taste, then you might not find that in homemade breads because in commercial bread baking a lot of improvisers and preservatives are added. So that might be the reason.
Thank you for the prompt reply with suggestions. I will try with part milk next time and probably add a little more sweetner. I did skimp on sugar thinking it might turn out too sweet. The kids loved the bread nonetheless.
ok…do not skip sugar at all…you can in fact add jaggery or any ohter organic sugar in place of white sugar…
sugar is a must for yeast breads as it is yeast feed…
Hello…i got this recipe from one of my group member. It has been nicely explained. Actually i am going to bake bread for the 1st time…always get confuse which brand of yeast to buy. So it will be helpful if you could tell me the brand name of yeast and i have philips hand blender, never used dough attachment..it has 5speed setting. In which speed mode do i have to use to knead dough?
Hi Savita
I am glad you are here in my blog space and considering to make the bread.
If you are a beginner in bread baking, please consider making all purpose flour bread first. it will be easier than whole wheat flour and you will get amazing results.
I use Gloripan dry Instant Yeast. it is good.
I have the same hand blender and believe me, I hardly used its dough attachments until few months back. Now for my normal roti dough also, i use it. it is so amazing to use and easy to handle. Plz go ahead and use it. I knead bread dough on 5. Start with 1 and when you see that the flour isn’t flying away from the bowl just increase to 5.
Thank you so much for the detailed reply and explanation. Is measurement will be same of all the ingredients if i use apf instead of wwf?
The measurements will change for liquid ingredients. Instead, why don’t you try the white bread recipe in my blog.
Sure…as per your advice first will bake with apf..thank you so much for the guidance
Welcome always!!
Hello Sutiksha,
Best bread receipe till date Thanks a lot.Please post more of healthy bread receipes like multigrain also and one with eggs.Looking forward to your new receipes.
Hi Diti
First of all thank you so much for going through my blog. I am so glad to know, that this recipe helped you.
Sure, I am working on multigrain breads too. Will post them in near future.
Thanks a lot!!
Hi Sutiksha, I liked this recipe and would like to try soon. Can you let me know, how much flour I would be needing in grams. Also, can I substitute butter with oil.. Thanks
Lydia
Hi Lydia
Thanks so much for stopping by and reading through.
I will update the ingredients in grams in the main post.
and off course, you can substitute butter with oil.
Thank you…Happy Baking!
Thank you for the recipe. Tried this today and was perfect . Kids approved and loved it😊.
Hi Deepika
I am so glad you all liked it, especially the kids.
Also thanks a lot for going through my blog.
Hi! Great recipe but my dough didn’t rise enough at 2nd proofing and bread turned out quite dense. Any suggestions of what might have gone wrong?
Hi Pooja,
There could be many reasons for the dough to not rise in the second proofing.
over kneading
less time
over proofing the first time
yeast not very good
temperature of your place
My suggestion is, if you are making bread for the first time, you should try the APF bread first and then when you get a hang of it you should try wwf bread.
Hope this helps.