Whole Wheat Honey Oat Sandwich Bread

Making your own homemade sandwich bread is one of the best ways to save money and make your brown bag lunches healthier. This easy recipe uses whole wheat, oats, and the natural sweetness of honey to create the perfect, soft, easy-to-slice homemade sandwich bread.

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Did you know there are as many as 30 ingredients in a loaf of store-bought bread?

As if that weren’t reason enough to learn how to make your own bread at home, have you seen the price of bread these days? 😱

I know… Stupid question. We’ve all seen the price of food skyrocket over the past couple years, and it seems food costs are only continuing to rise. For this reason alone, it’s no surprise that more people are going back to basics, learning to bake their own bread, prepare their own meals from scratch and even grow their own food at home. 

That being said, there’s a common misconception that bread baking is difficult and time-consuming, which is why we tend to fall back on the convenience of store-bought bread, even if it costs us an arm and a leg and is full of questionable ingredients like seed oils, high fructose corn syrup and a laundry list of other hard-to-pronounce additives and preservatives.

But learning to make your own homemade bread is easier than you might think, and the hands-on time that it takes to bake a loaf is quite possibly even less time than it would take you to run to the grocery store.

Not to mention, there are so many options and ways to get creative with bread-baking once you start making your own! You can make your own artisan-style loaves, rich and buttery brioche bread, and even hamburger buns at home for pennies on the dollar of what they would cost you at the store! 

But before you start turning your kitchen into a full-on home bakery, one thing that every home bread baker needs is a recipe for a really good homemade sandwich bread.

The following recipe for whole wheat honey oat sandwich bread is one of my favourite homemade sandwich bread recipes. It calls for just eight simple ingredients (all of which you can pronounce and probably have in your pantry already), and the end result is a delicious sandwich loaf with a hint of sweetness that’s perfect for school lunches, quick dinners and—my personal favourite—toast with homemade strawberry jam.

Here’s what you’ll need to make it…

Ingredients in whole wheat honey oat sandwich bread

This recipe for homemade honey oat sandwich bread calls for just a handful of ingredients, including:

• whole wheat flour
• all-purpose flour
• honey
• rolled oats
• active dry yeast
• butter (or coconut oil)
• salt
• water
• optional egg wash for for sticking oats to the top of the loaf

That’s it! Flour, water, salt, yeast, honey, oats, butter or healthy oil and an optional egg wash (egg mixed with water) if you want to add a few oats to the top of your loaf. No preservatives. No inflammatory seed oils. No refined sugars and definitely no high fructose corn syrup.

Do you need a bread machine to make bread?

One of the things that holds some people back from making their own bread is the misconception that you need a bread machine to make bread, but this is simply not true. I’ve never owned a bread machine, and I don’t intend to. It’s so easy to bake bread without a bread machine that I honestly have no desire to add yet another small appliance to my collection!

That being said, if you have one, you can just as easily make this recipe in a bread machine. Likewise, if you have a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment, you can use that to help you knead the dough. But if all you have is an oven and your own two hands, you can still make this bread just as easily.

What equipment do you need to make bread?

While you don’t need anything fancy like a bread machine or even a stand mixer to make a killer loaf of homemade sandwich bread, you will need a few simple kitchen tools, including:

• a large mixing bowl
• a wooden spoon for mixing the dough—I like to mix the water and yeast together with a whisk first, and then use a wooden spoon for mixing up the bread dough
• a bread pan
• a wire cooling rack
• parchment paper—this is optional, but I find it easier to get the loaf in and out of the pan if I line it with parchment paper first. It also makes for easier cleanup!
• a silicone basting brush—this is also optional, but useful for brushing egg wash on top of this loaf, or brushing butter on top of other types of bread that call for it

Other types of bread do sometimes call for additional tools and equipment, such as a banneton bread proofing basket, bread lame and dough scrapers. But you don’t need any of that for this honey oat bread recipe, which is another reason why it’s such a great recipe, especially if it’s your first time making your own bread!

Step-by-step instructions for making homemade honey oat sandwich bread

Step 1: In a large bowl, combine warm water, honey and yeast. Whisk the mixture together and let it sit for 5-10 minutes until the yeast looks foamy.

* This is called proofing the yeast. It’s a good way to ensure that commercial yeast is still active! If after 10 minutes, the yeast mixture is nice and foamy, that means the yeast is active and you can move onto the next step. If it’s not foamy, that means the yeast is probably no longer active, and you’d be better off to buy some fresh yeast and try again, otherwise your finished sandwich loaf might end up more like a brick).

Step 2: To the yeast mixture, add melted butter, all-purpose flour, one cup of whole wheat flour, oats and salt. Mix all ingredients together with a wooden spoon.

* You’ll notice that this whole wheat bread recipe also calls for all-purpose flour. This is common in whole wheat bread bread recipes as the all-purpose flour helps to make the bread less dense. You can also substitute bread flour for the all-purpose flour if you like).

Step 3: Add the remaining 3⁄4 cup of whole wheat flour and continue mixing until the dough comes together and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.

Step 4: Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface (use all-purpose flour to flour your countertop), and knead bread by hand for around six to eight minutes, until the dough is elastic and smooth. I use the “stretch-and-fold” method of kneading for this type of bread, but you can simply knead with the heels of your palms. 

Do a windowpane test to check that the dough has been sufficiently kneaded. This involves stretching a small piece of the bread dough between your fingers to the point where the dough is almost translucent and you can see light coming through. If the dough breaks before you can stretch it to this point, you will need to knead it a bit longer. If you can see light coming through the dough, you can move onto the next step! (This test helps ensure that the gluten in the dough has been adequately developed, which is crucial for proper rise and structure in the finished bread).

Step 5: Place dough in a lightly greased bowl and cover. (I use a little olive oil to grease the bowl). Let sit in a warm place (room temperature or slightly warmer) for around one to two hours, or until the dough has doubled in size.

* Note that the rise time can vary depending on how warm your kitchen/house is. The warmer it is, the less rise time your bread dough will need. If your house is on the cooler side, you can put your bread dough in the oven with the light on to help i warm up and rise a little quicker. Just don’t forget it’s in there and turn the oven on to preheat before you pull the dough out or you could have a mess on your hands! (Been there, done that, unfortunately).

Step 6: After dough has doubled in size, turn it out onto a clean surface (no need to add more flour) and shape it into a sandwich loaf. Transfer the dough to a bread pan lined with parchment paper (or greased with butter or oil) and place the pan with the dough inside into a plastic bag. (The plastic bag helps to keep moisture in so your bread dough doesn’t dry out. You can use also use plastic wrap if that’s all you’ve got, although I do find that my bread dough tends to rise just above the top of the pan, so the plastic bag allows for a little more leeway without the dough sticking to it).

Let the dough rise again until the dough has filled out the bread pan. Then preheat the oven to 350ºF (176ºC).

Step 7: Remove the bread pan from the plastic bag. If adding oats on top, make a quick egg wash by mixing one large egg together with a teaspoon of water. Brush the top of the loaf with the egg wash and then sprinkle the oats on top.

Step 8: Place sandwich loaf in the preheated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.

Step 9: Remove the bread pan from the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Then, remove the sandwich loaf from the bread pan and place on a wire rack to cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing and serving.

* A wire cooling rack is crucial for letting homemade bread cool as it allows airflow from all directions so the bottom doesn’t get soggy. However if you don’t have a dedicated wire cooling rack, you can use anything that will help to allow airflow to the bottom of your loaf. I use the wire rack from our convection oven. If you have an Instant Pot, you could use the wire rack that comes with that, or the wire rack that comes in a roasting pan, etc. 

How to store homemade sandwich bread

Once the loaf has completely cooled, you can slice it to your desired thickness and serve it fresh or place in a plastic bag and store in the fridge for up to around a week. While you can store it on the counter for a couple days, because there are no preservatives in this homemade bread, it does tend to spoil quicker than store-bought bread. I find it lasts a little longer if I store in the fridge, but I always check for mold after a few days just in case.

For a longer storage option, this bread also freezes really well! I recommend slicing it first before freezing it as it will be much easier to just pull out what you need later if you just want a couple slices for toast. This homemade honey oat bread stores well in the freezer for up to around three months or so before it starts getting a little too frosty for my liking.

Grab the full printable recipe below!

Be sure to print off the recipe below and keep it on hand so you always have a go-to homemade sandwich bread recipe at your fingertips.

And please leave a review below and let me know what you think of this homemade sandwich bread!

 

 

 

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