No-Yeast, No-Knead Whole Wheat Bread
If yeast bread baking makes you shake in your boots, today is a good day for you!
I know I already posted a recipe for whole wheat bread, but this recipe is different because it requires no yeast. It's a quick bread (a bread leavened with baking powder and baking soda instead of yeast), which means there's no kneading and no rising.
All you have to do is:
- mix the dry ingredients
- mix the wet ingredients
- put them together
- pour the batter into the pan
- bake
I much prefer yeast bread, both for its texture and flavor, but this is a good recipe when you're in a pinch and don't have time for the whole kneading-rising-shaping-rising-baking bit.
And it would also be a good recipe for those of you who are scared silly at the thought of kneading bread dough.
This bread is baked in a normal loaf pan, so it can be sliced and used much like yeast bread. And while it's not as flexible and sturdy as yeast bread, it's a pretty good imitation.
Here's how to make the bread (printable down below!)
First, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients except the brown sugar together in a bowl. I like to use a wire whisk for this purpose.
Next, mix the egg, milk, and brown sugar together. I do this right in the measuring cup to save a dish.
Incidentally, the recipe calls for the brown sugar to be added to the dry ingredients, but I find that it's much easier to get rid of brown sugar lumps if you mix it with the wet ingredients instead.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and mix gently. I cannot overemphasize this.
If you mix non-yeast batters too much, you will end up with a tough, chewy product.
Mix just until everything is combined, and do not feel that you must remove every single lump. Lumps are good (in this sort of bread, at least).
Scrape the batter into a greased 4x8 inch baking pan. I don't grease mine, since I'm the happy owner of one pound Gold Touch bread pan. 🙂
Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
This will be fairly difficult to slice neatly while it's hot, so let it cool for at least 15-30 minutes first.
No-Yeast Whole Wheat Oatmeal Bread
No yeast means no kneading; a perfect bread for beginner bakers!
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
- 1 cup white flour
- ½ cup quick cooking oatmeal
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon finely shredded orange peel (I've never added this, but it might be tasty for a breakfast bread)
- 1 ¾ cups buttermilk or sour milk (or a combo of yogurt and buttermilk)
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup brown sugar
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients (except the brown sugar) together in a bowl.
2. Mix the egg, milk, and brown sugar together. I do this right in the measuring cup.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and mix gently. I cannot overemphasize this. If you mix non-yeast batters too much, you will end up with a tough, chewy product. Mix just until everything is combined, and do not feel that you must remove every single lump.
4. Scrape the batter into a greased 4x8 inch baking pan.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
Notes
My baking powder ALWAYS has lumps. If yours does too, just sift it when adding it to the dry ingredients.
Nutrition Information
Yield 12 Serving Size 1 sliceAmount Per Serving Calories 142Total Fat 2gSaturated Fat 1gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 1gCholesterol 19mgSodium 352mgCarbohydrates 27gFiber 2gSugar 6gProtein 6g
I love this recipe! I will be trying it out this weekend. Thanks!
That looks fantastic! How cool is that.
Oh my. My mug of coffee is very lonely - it wants a piece of wheat toast!! Kristen, do you ever use a mixture of milk and vinegar as a substitute for buttermilk? This works great for me, but I don't bake as much as you (**SIGH**)
Thanks for another great post and great photos!
It never fails when I need buttermilk,I'm out. I've used the vinegar and milk trick for years. Thanks for posting this
That looks good for a change once in awhile! Especially those days I look in the cupboard and realize that I DIDN'T bake bread yesterday so we're out! LOL
Oh and tammy - I've done the milk/vinegar quite often when I can't get buttermilk. We live in a small town and depending on my grocery day the buttermilk in the store is due to expire in the next few days so I dont' buy it - I just sour milk myself and it works just fine!
@Tamika,
I find that buttermilk is still good long after the expiration date, even 2-3 weeks. It keeps much longer than sweet milk. I once had some that was a month out, and it was still OK.
(I've been cooking/baking a long long long time... been around a while, kids.)
Would this bread still taste yummy without the brown sugar? I love whole wheat but not the sweetness of it. In my yeast recipe, I understand the need for sugar but since this doesn't have yeast, can I omit it? Thanks. You can email me...howdenjoyce@yahoo.com,.
This recipe looks good and easy (which is a plus for me lol)!
Would this work with all white flour in a pinch?
Just wondering :).
Kat
Tammy, I don't often do that, because I keep buttermilk around most of the time, but I'm sure you could do that in this recipe. I don't like doing it for pancakes, because I like how thick buttermilk makes pancake batter, but I doubt that would matter in this application.
Joyce, yes, you could leave out the sugar. It's mainly in this bread for flavoring, so you shouldn't notice significant textural changes if you leave it out.
Kat, yes, you could certainly use all white flour if you like.
I made it! It was really delicious. I had some grapefruit zest in the freezer and I added it, but I can't really taste it, but the bread is delicious! I made cinnamon toast (butter, brown sugar, cinnamon) and it was awesome 🙂
We ran out of bread yesterday everning. When I went to make more, I realized that my yeast was no longer any good. Thank goodness I saw this recipe you posted! I made this bread last night and served up some cinnomon toast this morning. It was so tasty-just like cinnomon oatmeal-yum! Thanks!
No, really I do know how to spell cinnamon...
I finally got around to making this recipe and wanted to thank you for posting it. It was so good with our veggie/bean soup tonight and I can't wait to try it tomorrow a.m. topped with crunchy peanut butter---my protein of choice 🙂 I couldn't believe I got the whole thing mixed up in just minutes, put it in the oven, and it was all done before the soup was even ready. That's good for days like today when I've procrastinated all day!
Thanks for the great recipe. I have baked bread first time in my life following this recipe and it came out great. I used milk+vinegar instead of buttermilk. Also, I added cut almond instead of oatmeal. I used all white flour, white sugar and 2 cups of milk. Even after taking so many liberties bread came out just great. Thanks a lot.
Kristen, I realize this blog is from 2009, but if you're still around ... do you have any recipes for bread made with self-rising flour?
I actually don't think I've ever used self-rising flour in my whole life! I just buy regular flour because that's what most recipes call for.
I'm sorry I can't help you out.
That's okay Kristen, I'll give your recipe a try. I've never done this before though and I've been known to be a bit of a kitchen klutz.
You definitely DON'T want to use self-rising flour in place of the flour called for in this recipe...self-rising flour already has baking powder or baking soda in it, and the recipe calls for additional soda or powder, so that would be too much rising power.
I suppose you could try leaving out the baking soda/powder called for in the recipe, but I'm not positive how that would turn out.
Basic flour is your friend!
Oh I know that Kristen. I had a horrible experience when I used yeast with self-rising flour when I made cupcakes.
http://underthetorontosun.blogspot.ca/search?updated-max=2012-07-09T08:29:00-07:00&max-results=7
Ok, good! I just wanted to make sure I wasn't misleading you. : )
Sometimes I get in a baking mood...and sometimes I'm without required ingredients LOL, so I had 3/4 c of milk and I added 1 cup of sour cream with just a tad water to liquefy it. In addition, I added a tbsp of each - raisens, sunflower seeds, walnuts and flaked coconut for texture...mmmmm!
I know this post is old, but can you still tell me if it would be ok to do it only with whole wheat flour?? I'm trying to avoid white flour, or maybe use oat flour instead of the white flour? thanks!
Oat flour has low to no gluten, so that would change the texture of the bread a bit. Whole wheat flour would probably be a better option...your loaf will just be a little more dense and nutty-tasting.
Can you use bread flour in place of white flour?
Yep, that'll work fine!
I cannot wait to try this! Would whole wheat pastry flour be acceptable in place of the whole wheat and white flour? Also I only have slow-cooking or old-fashioned rolled oats. How would that substitute for the instant oats?
The whole wheat pastry flour should work fine, but I would be hesitant to substitute the old fashioned oats. They don't tend to behave the same way as quick oats in baking applications!