Today I’ve got the perfect recipe for soft, lightly sweet, sliceable high-altitude wheat bread with pecans and honey to amp up the flavor. This is a great option for homemade sandwich bread and it has just the right amount of whole wheat flour to give you great flavor and texture.

This recipe is super simple to pull together, and while you can mix and knead everything by hand, it’s much easier to pull together with a stand mixer. Let’s get to it!

How to Make High-Altitude Wheat Bread

This recipe uses fairly simple ingredients with the addition of honey, pecans or walnuts, and of course whole wheat flour. We’re starting off by warming up the water and milk, stirring in the honey, sugar, and active dry yeast and giving everything five minutes or so to get puffed up.

Ingredients for High-Altitude Wheat Bread

Add in the remaining ingredients, starting with just 2 1/2 cups of the all-purpose flour plus 1 cup of whole wheat flour and knead everything together until a shaggy dough forms. You want to add more flour only if needed, and your dough should be pulling away from the sides of the bowl but it should still be fairly soft.

Yeast and wet ingredients blooming for High-Altitude Wheat Bread

Dough in a bowl once it has just come together for High-Altitude Wheat Bread

Knead everything together until it’s very smooth and stretchy, which takes about 10 minutes in a stand mixer. Then gently form the dough into a ball, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let it rise until it has doubled in size. You can see below what the dough looks like before and after the first rise.

Dough before rising for High-Altitude Wheat Bread

Once the dough has risen, you can form it into the loaf. I like to roll the dough into a large rectangle where the short side is about as long as your loaf pan, and then roll it into a log that will fit neatly into your pan. Let the dough rest in the pan, covered, for about 30 minutes while your oven preheats before popping it in to bake.

The loaf will be very large, puffed, and golden brown all over when it’s ready. I like to brush the top with melted butter straight out of the oven to give it a little extra flavor and shine. Cool the bread before slicing and serving!

Tips & Tricks for the Perfect High-Altitude Wheat Bread

Here are my tips to help along the way to making the best high-altitude wheat bread:

Why doesn’t this recipe use all whole wheat flour? Whole wheat flour is much more dense and absorbent than classic all-purpose flour, and if you use only whole wheat flour in a loaf, it can become quite dense. Having a balance of both flours gives you great flavor while also keeping a soft, bouncy texture in the bread.
Do I have to include the pecans? No, you can swap in any chopped nut that you prefer here (walnuts are another great option) or you can omit the nuts all together. I like nuts in a wheat bread to make it feel more hearty though!
How do I know when to stop adding flour? The dough should be pulling away from the sides of the bowl and balling up around the dough hook, but it’s ok if it’s still sticking to the bottom of the bowl a bit. If you’re kneading it by hand, the dough should be soft and pliable, but not super sticky.
How do I know when the dough is kneaded enough? The dough should look much smoother than when it first came together, and it should be fairly stretchy.
Do I need to use the melted butter on top? The melted butter helps the bread brown as it bakes, and gives it a little bit of extra shine after it bakes. I would recommend keeping it.
What is the best way to slice my bread? If you’re looking for sandwich slices, I recommend letting the loaf cool down completely before slicing with a sharp, non-serrated knife. This will give you flatter, smoother cuts than a serrated knife.
I’m at about 5,000 ft. above sea level and I find that most people who live between about 3,000-7,000 ft. above sea level do not need to make any adjustments to my recipes.

Enjoy!