Italian Wheat Bread
updated: 04/29/2026
I have been making this bread for several decades, and was surprised I had not posted it before now.
This recipe came with our Zojirushi bread machine’s book. I may have altered some details, but it’s largely the original recipe. My change in recent years is to use the machine to make the dough, then bake in the oven in bread pans.
Italian Wheat Bread
- 1-1/2 cups water
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- 1-1/2 tsp salt
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp basil
- 6 to 8 cloves garlic, pressed (optional)
- 2-2/3 cups bread flour
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 2 tsp active dry yeast
Original Instructions: Place the ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed, or in the order specified by the manufacturer. Select the Wheat cycle and press Start. Makes a 2 lb loaf.
What I do: Pour hot tap water into the bread pan, then add sugar, salt, olive oil, basil, & garlic. Layer flours on top, then sprinkle with yeast. Hot water makes a more consistent rise, but may initially be too hot for the yeast. Keeping the water and yeast initially separated fixes this problem.
Select the Dough cycle and press Start. On my machine, this is 1 hour 55 minutes long.
Grease two 5×9″ bread pans. Preheat oven to 350 F.
Remove dough from machine, cut it in half. Shape into loaves and place in the prepared bread pans. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on wire racks. Makes two 1 lb loaves.