My favorite Amish bakery makes a 10 grain bread that has quickly become our favorite bread for toasting and whatever else you can imagine. Since I can only go there twice a year, I decided to do a search and see if I could come up with a similar product. The following recipe is one of the nicest doughs I have ever worked with and the finished product is a perfect match. I hope you enjoy it also. It makes two regular sized bread pans.
Karen's Multigrained Bread
1 1/4 cup 10 grain hot cereal mix ( 7 is ok also) I used Bob's Red Mill
2 1/2 cup boiling water
3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour ( i use white whole wheat from King Arthur)
1/4 c. honey
4 Tbs. butter--melted and cooled
2 1/2 tsp. instant yeast
1 Tbs. table salt
1. Pour the boiling water over the cereal mix and set aside for about an hour. It should cool to apprx. 100 degrees and soak up all the water. It is very important here that you are using a hot cereal mix and not just a regular cereal.
2. Combine the two flours in a large bowl.
3. Add the honey, melted butter, and the yeast to the cooled cereal. Mix this dough to combine.
4. Put this dough in stand mixer with dough hook attachment on low speed slowly adding in the combined flours. Mix for about 2 minutes until dough forms a ball. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 minutes.
5. ***Add the salt to the bowl and mix/knead with dough hook for 5 - 7 minutes until dough pulls away from sides of bowl. If this doesn't happen in 3-5 minutes you will need to add 2 Tbs more of flour which I did have to do.
6. Coat the dough lightly with oil, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and set in warm place for about 40 minutes. Grease two regular sized loaf pans with oil.
7. When the dough has doubled, cut in half. Flatten each half into a rectangle and then tightly roll the rectangle into a loaf that fits the pan. Lightly brush loaves with oil and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for 40 minutes or until they have risen above the edge of the pans.
8. Bake for 35-40 minutes in a 375 degree oven. Cool in pans for 5 minutes.
***Adding in the salt after the first rest keeps the dough from becoming tough. I though this was really odd, so I did a search and sure enough, that is correct.
