Sugar Free Whole Wheat Bread Recipe
One of the more shocking things I learned as I started my Sugar Free journey was that is is pretty much impossible to buy bread without added sugar or HFCS. I never thought of bread as sweet or needing to be sweet to be good but then I learned that the yeast needs sugar in order to rise. So I was in a bit of a quandary, I want bread but not sugar. What’s a guy to do? Fortunately my answer came in the back of one of the first books I read to start me on this journey, Year Without Sugar. I don’t have a mixer so it was a bit tricky to do. (I have since ordered a mixer from Walmart but they are apparently walking it over to me from Bentonville. What takes 2 weeks to be delivered anymore? When will Walmart get the Amazon drones?)
I had to modify the original recipe somewhat for taste and because the original cook time given wasn’t nearly enough. This makes a very tasty wheat bread with a crunchy crust and soft middle. It’s a bit dry-ish but since i almost always eat my sandwiches with a little mustard, it doesn’t bother me. I would recommend you get a bread slicer guide if you don’t already have one. Click the Read More link after the Recipe to see more.
This was one of the first recipes to appear on my site when I was focused primarily on avoiding Fructose, that’s why the Barley Malt Syrup and Dextrose are in the ingredients when they are both sugars, they just don’t contain any fructose. So technically this is a Fructose Free Wheat Bread Recipe, not necessarily sugar free. I’m sorry about any confusion. Sugar Free Wheat Bread
Sugar Free Wheat Bread
Ingredients
Instructions
Pour 1 cup of Oats in bowl
Pour in 3 Cups of Boiling Water and let sit for an hour
It will look like a wet, mushy bowl of oatmeal.
Stir in the Yeast, Salt, Olive Oil, and Barley Malt Syrup. In case you were wondering, the reason we use Barley Malt syrup and still call it Sugar Free is because it contains no fructose. Fructose is the killer that makes us fat and unhealthy.
Now the fun begins. Stir in 2 cups of whole wheat flour, then 2 cups of All Purpose Flour, then another 2 cups of All Purpose Flour a half-cup at a time. If you don’t have a mixer, you are in for a workout. In fact once it gets real thick, you need to just stir it with your hands in the bowl. Then once you are done hand-mixing, do your self a favor and go buy a mixer.
Pull the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes. Knead the last cup of flour in as it gets sticky.
Put the dough back into the bowl for an hour to rise.
Cut the dough in half and place each half in a buttered loaf pan. Let sit for another hour to rise. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.
Once you take the loaves out of the oven, let cool for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, turn out of pans and let cool. Slice up and serve!
I’d love to make this. I’ve been trying to make sugar-free bread but it never seems to rise properly (despite tasting great). And I researched and found somewhere to buy barley malt syrup in the UK 🙂 Thank you!
I can tell you it definitely works. I don’t eat it anymore because I don’t eat grains but it is something I make at every family gathering.
Dextrose IS sugar. 🙁
Yes but not fructose. I explained this in the text above.
Aarn – when you quit sugar, what was the withdrawal period like and how long did it last for please? Do you have any hints? I have read the Year of No Sugar but she didn’t really go into the details.
The strong withdrawal symptoms lasted about 3 days. However, if I had to do it over again knowing what I know now, I would drink a lot more water and eat more salt. Both of those things would have lessened my withdrawal symptoms. Let me know how else I can help!
Thanks Aarn – I am just at the end of day 2 (!) and so far feel okay – a little irritable but otherwise okay – and am wondering when the shoe is going to drop! I had a headache yesterday but apart from a vague feeling of unease, feel fine today and keep wondering when the bad stuff is going to kick in!
It won’t be too bad but expect the worst of it to hit about 3 days in as that’s when the glycogen stores in your muscles get depleted and your body is forced to switch over to burning fat for fuel. Just stay hydrated and you will be fine.
Thank you Aarn for your reply and support – this is rather a lonely journey! Nice to have someone else who has been there. My husband said he was going to do it too but at the end of day 1 said it was too hard! I am drinking lots of water and eating only good stuff! I am a tad concerned though about losing weight – I do not want to! I am eating butter when I have crispbreads or Ezekial bread, and also found a sugar free organic Italian dressing for my salads. I am curious as to why you are now not eating grains? That is something I have no interest in doing at all – so kudos to you!
The grain thing happened gradually because of 2 things. #1 I realized that to meet my weight loss goals I had to not only stop eating sugar but also stop eating anything my body could quickly convert to sugar like grains, potatoes, etc.
#2 As I continued to learn how the body deals with food,i realized that grains were inflammatory and caused things like joint pain and exacerbated my high blood pressure. The book I read that drove it home was grain brain by Dr Perlmutter. You might check it out.
Thank you for this awesome recipe! I’ve been looking everywhere. I just made it and it rose beautifully. I don’t have any plain flour or malt syrup here, so I just used whole meal flour and put the yeast in a cup of lukewarm milk until it got frothy, then added it to the porridge and the dry ingredients (yeast feeds on lactose). Added a little more flour to make up for the extra fluid content. Also chucked an egg in to help with the dryness and for added protein 🙂 Has turned out really well! Thank you again and all the best to you xoxo
So glad you found it!
I feel like an idiot because I just found out yeast can’t feed on lactose at all – so I don’t know why it happily bloomed in the milk! – but it still worked a treat 🙂 Thank you so much!
I wondered about that also but I figured if it worked, it worked.
Hello,I read your new stuff named “Sugar Free Whole Wheat Bread Recipe | My Sugar Free Journey” like every week.Your humoristic style is awesome, keep it up!
Thanks!
Per your explanation above, this bread is not sugar-free, just fructose-free.
Yes