Finally got all the ingredients together for an excellent-looking seven-grain bread from the ever-excellent Gisslen book Professional Baking.  It may just be my favourite bread so far! But Adele says I say that about every new bread recipe I try 🙂 She still prefers the oatmeal bread , but I’m going to keep making the multi-grain for a while methinks.

As mentioned in previous posts, the recipe is done by weight. The percentages are used for scaling the recipe up or down. The absolute measurements given produce three loaves that each weigh about 700 g (about a pound and a half). I found most everything in the local Bulk Barn.

Ingredients

  • Water: 815 g (62%)
  • Yeast, fresh: 30 g (2.4%) [15 g active dry or 10 g instant dry]
  • Bread flour: 750 g (57%)
  • Rye flour: 185 g (14%)
  • Barley flour: 65 g (5%)
  • Cornmeal: 90 g (7%)
  • Rolled oats: 90 g (7%) [regular oats; not quick oats or steel cut]
  • Flax seeds: 65 g (5%)
  • Millet: 65 g (5%)
  • Salt: 24 g (1.8%)

Directions

I used instant dry yeast, so no activation necessary. I did the following:

  • Mix the flours and cornmeal together in the mixing bowl so they’re thoroughly blended. (You can sift them if you want. I just mixed them for a while.)
  • Mix in the instant dry yeast so it’s well distributed.
  • Mix in the oats, seeds, and millet (don’t grind them or anything).
  • Dissolve the salt in the water and nuke the water for a couple of minutes so it’s warm but not super hot (you don’t want to kill the yeast).
  • Pour the water into the bowl with all the dry ingredients and put the bowl on your mixer.
  • Mix for approx. 10 minutes until the gluten is well formed.
  • Turn out and transfer to a covered bowl. Let rise for 90 minutes.
  • Turn out and divide the dough into equal portions.
  • Form the dough balls and let rest for 10 minutes or so.
  • Form the loaves and put them in your pans.
  • Cover and let rise for another hour.
  • Preheat the oven to 425F.
  • Slice the tops of the loaves and bake for 16 minutes. (Your mileage may vary. Watch them closely. You don’t want them to burn on top. Just a nice deep golden brown.)

I basically just ate an entire loaf within an hour of taking them from the oven. So good! Let me know how it goes for you. Enjoy!