If you're the proud owner of a bread machine, this one is for you. Today I'm sharing one of my go-to sandwich loaves that's perfect for PB&Js, BLTs, grilled cheese, French toast, and more: whole grain rye bread!

Sometimes, or at least on social media, it feels as though bakers turn their noses up at bread machines. Like if you're not tenderly kneading the dough by hand, supervising the proofing process, and baking it in the oven then you're cheating and not really baking from scratch.

Let's not gatekeep bread making, shall we? The fact is, people are busier than ever, yet increasingly concerned about ultra-processed foods and the quality of food they're feeding their families and themselves. So what's a busy person to do? Embrace modern convenience and technology and enlist the help of a friendly little kitchen robot — the bread machine!

A freshly baked loaf of whole grain rye bread made in a bread machine, with two slices cut and placed on a wooden cutting board, accompanied by a bread knife and a blue linen cloth.

I've written before about how I debated getting one for a while, but once I succumbed to the siren song of a bread machine I've used it weekly for sandwich loaves for my family. I still bake sourdough once or twice a month, but it's a laborious process and one that I don't want to do weekly.

This is a flavorful, nutty, peasant-style loaf inspired by the Sennebec Hill Bread recipe from The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook by Beth Hensperger — I typically make it with ancient grains flour instead of whole wheat flour as written below, but know it can be hard to source good quality, freshly-milled grains. I also dropped the egg yolks required from 3 to 2, because eggs are such a hot (and expensive!) commodity these days. Feel free to use 3 — I do when our chickens are laying up a storm, but in the winter drop it to just 2 yolks.

If you're looking for something a little less grain-y, then I know you'd love the other bread machine recipe I have, cottage cheese bread. Or if you're looking to dabble in the fine art of sourdough, I've got you covered here.

Ingredients

Don't fret if you don't have some of the ingredients, but also they're good items to stock your pantry with if you're serious about making all of your bread from scratch. I tend to get bags of Bob's Red Mill grains as they're available at Wegman's, Market Basket, and most regular grocery stores. For this recipe, we will be using the following:

dark rye flour
rolled oats
corn meal
wheat germ
wheat bran
bread flour
whole wheat flour

See recipe card for quantities!

Equipment

This whole grain rye bread recipe as written calls for a bread machine — if you're a seasoned baker, you can easily make this without one though. I haven't done that so I am not including the instructions, but this website has a write up of the inspiration recipe and makes it without a bread machine so that would be a good place to start. This is the machine that I have, but I always tell people to look at thrift stores and yard sales and Facebook Marketplace as people often are getting rid of them! I personally use mine every week, though.

Storage

Store in a plastic bag or Tupperware container for 3 days on the counter, but I prefer to refrigerate the entire time. Mainly because we have a dog who goes bananas over homemade bread, but also because I find it stores for a week in the fridge!

Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:

📖 Recipe