multigrain bread

Year of Bread: Everyday Multigrain Bread

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The kind of bread I want to eat every day is grainy, flavorful, but neutral — something that I can slice and eat by itself, or toast, or make a sandwich. The kind of bread you’d get at the store off the shelf. But better.

This is that kind of bread.

Like the Anadama from back at the beginning of my Year of Bread, this multigrain bread starts with a cornmeal soaker. It’s not a preferment in the technical sense (no baker’s yeast), but it does help with developing flavor and softening the whole grains to make the final product better. I used a truly multigrain mix of cornmeal, quinoa, oat and rye flakes, and wheat germ. The original recipe called for wheat bran, but I made a substitution since I had a hard time finding wheat bran (and like the taste and texture of wheat germ better).

Multigrain breads usually end up being a hodgepodge of whatever’s in the cupboard, but I kind of like that about them. You could add a sprinkling of wheat bran, oats or even sunflower seeds to the top of this bread, but in general my experience has been that such things just end up falling off anyway, and this bread has enough flavor and texture that it doesn’t need any further embellishment.

multigrain bread

 

Everyday Multigrain Bread

Slightly adapted from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. Yields one 2 lb loaf. 

Ingredients

Soaker

  • 3 tbsp rolled oats, or a combination of oat and rye flakes
  • 2 tbsp cornmeal
  • 2 tbsp wheat germ (or wheat bran)
  • 1 tbsp quinoa
  • 1/4 cup water, room temperature

Dough

  • 3 cup unbleached bread flour
  • 3 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp instant yeast
  • 3 tbsp cooked brown rice
  • 1 1/2 tbsp honey
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 3/4 cup water, room temperature
  1. Prep the soaker: The night before you want to make your bread, combine the dry soaker ingredients in a small bowl, then cover with water. Stir with a spoon to combine– you might want to add just a few teaspoons more water to make sure that everything is hydrated.
  2. Mix the dough: The next day, combine the flour, brown sugar, salt and yeast in a bowl. Add the hydrated soaker and the cooked brown rice and stir to combine, then add the honey, milk and water. The dough will be very sticky at first, so keep stirring it in the bowl and add flour as needed until it comes together — if you turn it out for kneading too soon, it will just stick to everything. After a few minutes of mixing the dough should firm up a bit and you can turn it out onto a floured surface. Knead by hand for 12-15 minutes.
  3. Ferment the dough: Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for about 90 minutes; the dough should double in size.
  4. Shape the loaf: This bread does really well in a loaf pan! Grease your loaf pan to prep, then carefully turn the dough out onto a very lightly floured surface. Gently press it into a rectangle, then roll up, pressing the seam of the loaf as you go to form a tight surface, until the dough is a neatly shaped log. Place in the loaf pan and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for another 90 minutes; the dough will crest fully above the lip of the pan.
  5. Bake the bread: Preheat the oven to 350° when the bread is getting close to fully risen. When the oven is ready, place the pan in the oven on the middle shelf. Bake for about 20 minutes, then rotate the pan 180° and continue baking for 20-30 minutes. The loaf will be golden brown and sound hollow when tapped from the bottom when it’s done.
  6. Immediately remove the bread from the loaf pan and transfer to a rack to cool. Let cool for at least 1 hour before slicing and serving.
light wheat bread slices

Year of Bread: Light Wheat Bread

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I love a good loaf of something fancy and decadent. But on the average day, I usually just want a decent piece of wheat bread to toast up and slather with peanut butter. The nice thing about this recipe for light wheat bread is that it’s quick and fool-proof to make. Bread with whole wheat flour requires less dough kneading, and does best with a shorter fermentation time than white bread. This light wheat bread loaf won’t last as long as a store-bought loaf, but otherwise it looks and acts pretty much like something you’d buy at the store.

Last year The Kitchn ran a recipe for insanely decadent $10 toast, which featured a piece of homemade toast slathered in imported butter, artisanal jam, local honey, fresh peanut butter, sea salt and edible gold flakes. While I didn’t try it out myself, I also failed to realize that it was, in fact, a culinary April Fools’ Joke. However, it did make me consider different combinations of breakfast toast toppings. Who’s to say you have to choose between peanut butter and jam? Or that sea salt won’t balance out the sweetness of honey? I’ve ended up adopting the winning combo of chunky peanut butter, a drizzle of honey and a sprinkle of sea salt for my own toast (on days when I have time to make a multi-step breakfast, that is). It takes a relatively plain breakfast and adds just enough depth of flavor to elevate it from averagely edible to delicious. I highly recommend everyone give it a try!

wheat bread loaf whole

Light Wheat Bread Recipe

Yields one 2 lb. loaf. From Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.

Ingredients

  • 2.5 cups bread flour
  • 1.5 cups whole-wheat flour
  • 1.5 Tbsp honey
  • 1.5 tsp salt
  • 3 Tbsp powdered milk*
  • 1.5 tsp instant yeast
  • 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1.25 cups water, room temperature

*Don’t have powdered milk on hand? Take out 3 Tbsp water and substitute 3 Tbsp low-fat milk, adding it along with the other wet ingredients.

  1. Stir together dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add butter, honey and water and stir until the ingredients form a ball. If the dough isn’t coming together or seems too dry, add a little more water a few teaspoons at a time. Better that it’s a little too wet at this point rather than too dry.
  2. Turn dough out onto a floured counter and knead for about 10 minutes. The dough should be tacky but not sticky, and register 77ºF to 81ºF. Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
  3. Let rise for 1.5-2 hours, or until dough doubles in size.
  4. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and press it into a rectangle about 6 inches wide and 8-10 inches long. Form the dough into a loaf by rolling it up, pressing the seam of the roll as you go to create surface tension (that’s how you’ll get a good crust). Transfer loaf to a lightly oiled (or buttered) loaf pan, mist with spray oil, then cover loosely with plastic wrap.
  5. Proof the loaf for about 90 minutes. The dough should crest above the lip of the pan, but shouldn’t swell so much that it overflows the pan. Preheat the oven to 350ºF when the loaf is almost ready.
  6. Put the pan in the oven and bake for 30 minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees and continue baking for another 15-30 minutes. When the bread is done it will be golden brown and sound hollow when thumped from the bottom.
  7. Remove the bread from the loaf pan immediately when you take it out of the oven and cool on a rack for at least 1 hour before slicing and serving.

light wheat bread loaf sliced

Year of Bread: Cinnamon Raisin Bread

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Confession: I don’t like raisins. I’ll eat pretty much any other dried fruit, and enjoy it, but raisins just aren’t my thing. So when I got to this particular recipe for cinnamon raisin bread in The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, my first thought was to just leave the raisins out. Unfortunately, I live in a house of raisin bread lovers, so instead of throwing them out entirely, I decided to split the difference and bake a loaf of with raisins for everyone else, and a loaf with walnuts for me. They were both fantastic.

This recipe produced the softest, most supple dough. It’s got a good amount of fat in it — milk, egg and a touch of vegetable shortening — to keep it from being too dry. It’s also got a healthy dose of cinnamon kneaded right into the dough, which is why this is definitely cinnamon raisin bread and not just, well, raisin bread.

cinnamon rollingAdding chunky ingredients like dried fruit and nuts should always be done towards the end of the kneading process, otherwise they end up getting squished. I divided the dough in half before incorporating the walnuts and raisins, then folded the ingredients in until they were (somewhat) evenly distributed.raisin bread dough

The bread also has a spiral of cinnamon sugar swirling through it, which is easy enough to add but looks fancy — just sprinkle a healthy layer of cinnamon sugar into the dough before rolling it up into a loaf shape. I added extra raisins during this stage, to the raisin loaf. I also sprinkled some cinnamon sugar on top of the loaves, which looks and tastes great, but makes them slightly sticky on the outside, especially after a day or two of sitting around in the kitchen. I would probably skip the cinnamon sugar crust next time in favor of an egg or butter wash.

cinnamon walnut bread

Cinnamon Raisin Bread and Cinnamon Walnut Swirl Bread

Adapted from Peter Reinhart’s Bread Baker’s Apprentice

Yields two smallish loaves or one biggish loaf

Ingredients

  •  3.5 cups (16oz) unbleached bread flour
  • 4 tsp granulated sugar
  • 1 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp instant yeast
  • 1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 large egg, slightly beaten
  • 2 tbsp shortening, melted or at room temp
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk or whole milk, room temp
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 1 1/4 cup raisins, rinsed and drained (optional)
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

For Filling/Topping:

  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 tbsp cinnamon

Process

  1. Stir together dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, yeast and cinnamon) in a mixing bowl.
  2. Add wet ingredients and stir until ingredients come together.
  3. Turn dough out onto a floured counter and knead for 10 minutes. The dough should be soft and silky– not too stiff or sticky (although at this point it’s better that it’s slightly on the wet side, so add flour or water to adjust as necessary.
  4. Add most of the raisins or walnuts (or both), and knead for about 2 minutes — you want them to be fairly well distributed, but don’t knead so long that they start to fall apart.
  5. Shape the dough into a ball and return to an oiled bowl, covering with plastic wrap. Let rest for 2 hours, or until dough doubles in size.
  6. If you’re baking 2 loaves, divide into 2 equal pieces and form them into loaves. Place the loaves in greased bread pans and mist the top with spray oil, then cover loosely.
    1. Forming Loaves:  Gently press the piece of dough into a 5×8 rectangle. Sprinkle liberally with cinnamon sugar, and the remaining raisins or walnuts, if using. Starting at one of the short ends, roll up into a loaf, pinching the seam closed to seal.
  7. Proof at room temperature for 60-90 minutes. The tops of the loaves should crest the top of the pans and swell considerably. Preheat the oven to 350F while the loaves are rising.
  8. Bake the loaves for 20 minutes. Rotate the pans 180 degrees and back for another 20-30 minutes. Note: If you’re baking a large loaf, it may take longer. The loaves will be golden brown and should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
  9. Immediately remove the loaves from their pans and cool on a rack for at least 1 hour before slicing. Enjoy cinnamon raisin bread plain, or toasted with a slather of butter.

cinnamon raisin loaf from above