Ingredients

Scale

2 cups bread flour
1 cup good-quality white whole wheat flour
1 Tablespoon yeast
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups water

Instructions

Put all the ingredients in your bread machine or mixer and set on the dough setting.
When the dough is ready, spray a loaf pan with cooking spray, shape the dough into an oblong shape about the length of the loaf pan and set it in there. Spray with cooking spray and let it rise in a warm place until it’s puffed up over the top (about an hour or so … sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on how warm your rising spot is).
Set the oven on 350 F and bake for about 40 minutes, until the loaf is nicely golden brown and sounds hollow when you lightly thump the top.
Remove from the oven and spray the top of the loaf with cooking spray. Let the bread sit for about 10 minutes before cutting into it.

Notes

I’m including “rising time” in the “cook time” … You can bake the bread in the bread machine if you like, but I prefer to shape my loaves and bake them in a loaf pan.

The quality of the flour you use makes all the difference! I use Prairie Gold White Whole Wheat Flour and Dakota Maid Bread Flour. My dad swears by Dakota Maid, but I can’t find their whole wheat flour anywhere in town, so I go with Prairie Gold.

A tip for faster rising: preheat the oven to the lowest temperature (170 F usually), then shut it off. Set the pan in the oven and cover it. The dough will rise in 30 – 45 minutes. When it’s time to bake the bread, you can just leave the bread in the oven, uncover it, and then turn the oven on. It will rise just a bit more while the oven heats up, which is always a good thing. 🙂