🍞 My Go-To Basic Dough Recipe (Made with Fresh Milled Wheat)
If you’ve followed along for a while, you know I use this basic dough recipe for just about everything—bagels, sandwich bread, cinnamon rolls, you name it. It’s simple, nourishing, and made with fresh milled flour. And the best part? You can customize it however you want. Sometimes I add an egg, sometimes I don’t—it turns out great either way.
I’ve had so many people ask for the exact recipe I use, so here it is all in one place!
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Ingredients
Dry:
• 3 cups hard wheat berries, freshly milled into flour
(I usually use all hard red wheat for its hearty flavor. But if I want the flavor to be a little lighter—like when I’m adding spices or sweet flavors—I’ll do 2 cups red and 1 cup hard white wheat. Both are hard wheats and both work great!)
• 2 tbsp sunflower lecithin
Wet:
• 1 cup hot water
• 2 tsp salt (stir into the hot water to dissolve)
• ½ cup additional water (for a total of 1½ cups water)
• ⅓ cup organic olive oil
• ⅓ cup honey
• 1 egg (optional, but I usually include it)
Yeast:
• 1 tbsp yeast
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🥣 Instructions
1. Grind the Wheat:
Mill 3 cups of hard wheat berries into fresh flour.
2. Mix the Dry Ingredients:
In a bowl, combine the fresh flour and 2 tablespoons of lecithin. Stir together and set aside.
3. Prep the Wet Ingredients:
In another bowl or measuring cup, pour in 1 cup of hot water and stir in the 2 teaspoons of salt to dissolve. Then add another ½ cup of water.
Combine ⅓ cup olive oil and ⅓ cup honey (tip: add the oil first so the honey slides right out). Add 1 egg if you’re using it, and whisk everything together until well combined.
4. Layer into the Bread Machine:
If you’re using a bread machine (like I do), remove the bread pan from the machine.
• Pour in all of the wet ingredients first.
• Then pour the flour + lecithin mixture over the top of the liquid (do not mix).
• Use your finger or a spoon to make a small well in the center of the flour and add 1 tablespoon of yeast into that spot.
5. Let the Machine Do the Work:
Set your bread machine to the dough setting. It will mix, knead, and take the dough through its first rise. After that, I usually remove the dough, shape it, and let it rise again before baking.
(Bonus tip: If you accidentally let it go through both rises in the machine before taking it out—don’t worry! Just shape it and give it one more short rise. I’ve done this plenty of times and it still bakes up beautifully.)
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💛 Notes
• This dough is incredibly versatile! I use it for bagels, rolls, sandwich bread, sweet swirl loaves, and more.
• It also works beautifully as pizza crust or pita bread. For pizza crust, I usually skip the egg since I prefer a thinner, flat crust. After the first rise, I knead and divide the dough into pizza portions, roll them out, and pre-bake for a few minutes. Then I either freeze the crusts or top and bake them fresh! (I’ll share a full pizza dough post soon!)
• You can find this dough in action on my pinned bagel-making Reel over on Instagram.
Whether you’re baking something sweet, savory, or simple—this dough is the kind of recipe that just fits into everyday life. I hope it becomes one of your favorites too. 💛