Jimmy John's Wheat Bread

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People try to reproduce this with wholemeal flour and end up with a heavy, crumbly roll that falls apart under a sandwich. The bread they are copying is not a wholemeal bread.

It is a mostly-white dough with enough wholemeal for colour and flavour — call it a quarter to a third. That ratio is what lets it stay soft and chewy while still reading as wheat bread.

Why wholemeal fights you

Wholemeal flour contains the bran and germ. The bran is the problem: its sharp particles physically cut through gluten strands as the dough is worked, so the structure never develops properly.

Less gluten structure means less gas held, which means a denser loaf. It also means the crumb tears rather than stretching, which is exactly what you do not want in a sandwich roll.

At 25–30% wholemeal you get the flavour and colour with the structure mostly intact. Past about 50% the trade stops being worth it for this style of bread.

Honey does two jobs

Wholemeal is slightly bitter, and honey covers that. But it also feeds the yeast and, more usefully, it is hygroscopic — it holds onto water, which keeps the roll soft for a day longer than it otherwise would be.

Molasses does a similar job with a stronger flavour, and a spoonful alongside the honey deepens the colour convincingly.

What you need

• 300 g strong white bread flour
• 150 g wholemeal flour
• 300 ml warm water
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp molasses or black treacle
• 2 tsp instant yeast
• 1.5 tsp fine salt
• 2 tbsp neutral oil

Method

1. 1. Whisk the yeast into the warm water with the honey and molasses. Leave 5 minutes until it foams.
2. 2. Mix both flours and the salt in a large bowl.
3. 3. Add the liquid and the oil, and bring together into a shaggy dough.
4. 4. Knead 10 minutes. Wholemeal doughs need longer than white ones because the bran is working against the gluten the whole time.
5. 5. Cover and rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
6. 6. Knock back, divide into 4, and roll each into a 25 cm log. Roll from the middle outwards, tapering slightly.
7. 7. Onto a lined tray, cover, and rise 40 minutes.
8. 8. Oven to 200°C. Slash each roll lengthways about 1 cm deep.
9. 9. Bake 20–25 minutes, until they sound hollow underneath.
10. 10. Cool on a rack completely before cutting.

The slash

A sub roll expands as it hits the oven and if there is no weak point it splits wherever the crust is thinnest, usually along one side. A single lengthways slash tells it where to open and gives the roll its shape.

Shallow slashes do nothing. A centimetre deep, in one confident stroke.

Cool it completely

Bread continues cooking as it cools — the starches are still setting. Cut a roll warm and the crumb is gummy and compressed where the knife went through.

An hour on a rack. It is the hardest instruction in baking to follow and it is real.

Storing

Two days in a paper bag at room temperature. Plastic softens the crust into something unpleasant.

They freeze well for three months. Freeze them whole; slice after thawing.