Cracked Wheat Bread (Bulgur Wheat Bread)
This Cracked Wheat Bread recipe is a real keeper. Rustic and chewy with a substantial bite, this recipe works with cracked wheat or bulgur wheat. Make this bread when you want a hearty loaf full of whole wheat flavor and goodness.
Table of contents
Why you’ll love this recipe
Wheat berries are unprocessed kernels of wheat, which include the bran, germ, and endosperm. Wheat berries (and cracked wheat) have all the great nutrition and full flavor of a whole grain.
If you can’t find wheat berries or cracked wheat you can use bulgur wheat in this recipe. Bulgur wheat is a little different than cracked wheat in that the grains are steamed/parboiled and then dried. I’ve made this bread with both cracked and bulgur wheat with good results.
This is a very moist dough which bakes up into a moist loaf. Please review the process photos to see the texture of the dough through the various stages of the recipe.
If you keep a sourdough starter, visit this post to make Sourdough Cracked Wheat Bread.
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
- Bread Flour – High protein bread flour promotes great gluten development in the dough. The bread flour helps form the structure of the dough and can support the heavier grains.
- Whole Wheat Flour – With the bread flour, the whole wheat flour forms the structure of the bread.
- Cracked (or Bulgur) Wheat – Adds a chewy texture and hearty flavor to the bread. You must the cracked or bulgur wheat in boiling water to soften the grain before adding it to the dough.
- Yeast – I prefer instant yeast to rapid rise yeast for a slightly slower rise. A slower rise gives more time for flavor to develop.
Process photos
See the recipe card for detailed measurements and instructions.
- Pour boiling water over the cracked or bulgur wheat and set it aside until most of the water is absorbed.
- Make a sponge with warm water, yeast and some of the bread flour, set it aside.
- When the bulgur or cracked wheat has absorbed most of the water you are ready to mix the dough.
- Add the soaked grains and the liquid to the sponge.
- Add the remaining ingredients to the dough. It will be quite sticky.
- Begin kneading the dough. As you start kneading, the dough will stick to the bowl and look quite shaggy.
- After 5 minutes of kneading the dough should gather on the hook and clear the sides of the bowl.
- After kneading the dough will be quite stretchy, but still a bit sticky. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead into a ball.
- Set the dough ball into a lightly oiled bowl to rise for 1 – 1 1/2 hours.
- The dough should double in size during the first rise.
- Knead the dough the form it into a football shape.
- Set the loaf aside to rise until doubled in size.
- Brush the dough with egg wash and sprinkle with bulgur wheat or seeds.
- Bake until the internal temperature is 190F. Cool completely before slicing.
Storage
Thanks to the moist dough, the bread keeps extremely well at room temperature for 2-3 days. For longer storage slice the loaf, store the slices in a freezer bag and freeze for up to a month. Defrost or toast the bread as needed.
More Artisan Bread Recipes
- Homemade Bagels
- Multi Grain Bread
- Milk & Honey Whole Wheat Bread
- Honey Oatmeal Bread
- White Sandwich Bread
- Hoagie Rolls
- Crusty Semolina Bread
If you love this recipe as much as I do, I’d really appreciate a star rating and a quick comment. Ratings and comments help my recipes show in search results. Thanks!
Cracked Wheat Bread (Bulgur Wheat Bread)
Ingredients
- 3 ½ ounces bulgur or cracked wheat (½ cup)
- 8 ounces boiling water (1 cup)
- 4 ounces warm water (½ cup)
- 2 ¼ teaspoons dry yeast (7g)
- 5 ounces bread flour (1 cup, see note)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¾ oz honey (1 tablespoon)
- 5 ounces whole wheat flour (1 cup)
- 1 egg (whisked with 1 tablespoon of water for egg wash)
Instructions
- Combine 3 ½ ounces bulgur or cracked wheat and 8 ounces boiling water and set aside until cooled and most of the water has been absorbed.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl, combine 4 ounces warm water with 2 ¼ teaspoons dry yeast. Add 2 ½ oz (1/2 cup) bread flour and mix to form a thick batter. Cover the bowl and let the batter rest for 30 minutes while the cracked wheat cools.
- With the mixer running on low, add the cooled cracked wheat along with the soaking water. Add 1 teaspoon salt, ¾ oz honey and 5 ounces whole wheat flour. Mix to combine.
- If using a stand mixer, switch to the dough hook. Slowly add the remaining bread flour until the dough comes together. At this point the dough will be quite sticky. Continue kneading the dough for 5 minutes until it gathers around the hook and cleans the sides of the bowl. If working by hand mix in as much flour as you can then turn the dough out onto a floured surface and finish kneading in the flour by hand. Knead the dough for 2-3 minutes. Form the dough into a smooth ball
- Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, turn once to coat the dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 – 1 ½ hours. At this point the dough can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.
- Turn the dough onto a floured surface and gently knead for 5-10 seconds. Form the dough into a ball then roll the ends gently to form a football shape. If you will be using a baking stone, set the loaf on a wooden peel sprinkled heavily with cornmeal. If you don't have a baking stone put the loaf on a sheet pan sprinkled heavily with cornmeal or lined with parchment paper. If you have a banneton liberally sprinkle the inside of the basket with cracked wheat and wheat flour and set the dough into the basket.
- Cover the loaf with plastic wrap that has been lightly oiled or sprayed with baking spray to prevent it from sticking to the dough. Allow the loaf to rise about 1 – 1 ½ hours until doubled in sized and the dough springs back slowly when poked. If the dough was cold from the refrigerator it may take longer to rise.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 450°F, place a baking stone in the oven to preheat if you have one. To create steam you can place a small pan (with rocks if you have them) onto the floor of the oven. You can also bake the loaf in a Dutch oven.
- When the bread is ready, use a thin, sharp knife or single edge razor to slash 5 diagonal cuts across the top of the loaf. Brush the surface of the bread with egg wash and sprinkle with cracked wheat. Slide the loaf onto the preheated baking stone (or slide the sheet pan into the oven)1 egg
- Pour a cup of water into the preheated pan at the bottom of the oven (CAREFUL, that steam is hot) and immediately close the oven door. If using a Dutch oven set a timer for 20 minutes. Remove the lid of the Dutch oven and bake for another 20 minutes.
- Bake until the loaf is nicely browned and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom (or the center of the loaf reaches 200 °F), about 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
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Are the pepitas you use raw or already toasted? Thanks for your recipe! Could you please respond by email?
I prefer to respond here so everyone can see the answer. I used the pepitas raw since they’ll bake on top of the bread. But toasted seeds would be fine.
The recipe as printed above does not contain enough flour. At step 10, the first kneading, the batter was the consistency of a milkshake, and obviously not ready to knead. I have made it twice and had to add at least 1 1/2 cups of additional bread flour. I have made the bread twice and like the flavor so much more than regular wheat bread, but if I can’t get the right measurements I may have to find another recipe.
I compared your sourdough and sponge recipes and noticed the later had less flour (about 4.5 oz). I think you left out the actual sponge. I started with 4.5 Oz of bread flour, 2 Oz of water and 1/4 tsp of yeast for 5 hrs and then added the cooled boiled cracked wheat. I reduced the amount of water in the final dough to 1/4 c like you have in the sourdough recipe to reach the 75% hydration level. I also added 10 gr. of dry malt powder to assist the rise, but otherwise followed the subsequent steps as detailed. The resulting dough was very easy to work with and baked to 190 F. I did find the crumb to be a little too moist, so I may extend the bake next time, and there will definitely be a next time,.
@Eileen, please look at the recipe posted, how do you calculate 18 oz of flour? I’m a big fan of high hydration bread, but this is well beyond that.
I’ve updated this recipe so some of my earlier comments are not consistent with the current measurements.
First thing I’ll say is that calculating the hydration percent is a little tricky for this recipe. If you calculate based on 12 oz of water and 13.5 oz bulgar/bread/wheat flour you’d get a hydration percent of 88. That would be a very wet dough. But by the time the bulgar is added to the dough most of the water should have been absorbed. Cracked wheat and whole wheat flour will absorb more water than ap or bread flour.
If you completely ignore the cracked wheat and boiling water, the dough hydration is really quite low, only 40% (4 oz water, 10oz bread/wheat flour). There will be some residual moisture from the bulgar, so the hydration percent is surely higher than 40, but surely lower than if you count in the bulgar and boiling water. I think the actual percent is probably somewhere in the middle.
I just made a loaf of this bread again (the sourdough version) as I often do when I get lots of questions on a recipe. The dough was quite firm and very easy to work with. You do have to give the bulgar a good hour to absorb the boiling water. I’ll edit the recipe to make that instruction clear. Also, I measure the flour using the “dip and sweep” method which yields 5oz per cup. If you spoon the flour into the cup you could be short a couple of ounces.
How can I tap on the bottom in the middle of baking?
I see you gave the recipe 3 stars. Did you make the bread or are you basing the rating on the instructions? You can tap on the bread while it’s baking. Wait until the loaf is well browned and looks like it might be ready. Put on oven mitts, lift the loaf, take off one of the mitts and tap the bottom. It will give a “hollow” sound when it’s ready.This is a fairly standard description of how to check if a bread is baked.
This is such a good looking loaf of bread Eileen, the egg glaze and cracked wheat has certainly given it a beautiful finish.
Angela x
Thanks, Angela. It was a tasty loaf.
I never understand how you can change someone recipe, stated that you did and still complain that the recipe needed more flour. Like it’s the pwrson fault.If you bake you’ll know that wheat, bulgar and rye take more water, now if you’re using bread flour and all purpose flour of course you’ll need to add more flour. The baker also stated to let it soak. I just get annoyed at people complaining about a very good recipe they change.
Thanks for sending this into the Bready Steady Go challenge! Your loaf looks great, I have never used wheat berries before.
The wheat berries give the bread a great crunch.
Hey, I forgot to copy the Bready Steady Go logo code. How can I get it without re-submitting the recipe?
Thanks!
Only just seen your comment sorry! You can just copy it from my post and add it to your post, along with a link to the hosts. Thanks so much!