Christmas

Multigrain Cereal Bread

by:
September 15, 2010
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0 Ratings
Multigrain Cereal Bread
  • Makes One Good-Sized Loaf
Author Notes

Several years ago, I learned from longtime community member, thirshfeld, an interesting tip, as well as a fascinating bit of bread-making history. His tip? You can put fresh breadcrumbs, made from slightly stale bread, in the dough of new loaves that you bake. This practice was so common in the 19th century that local governments here and in Europe actually limited the quantity the amount of bread crumbs commercial bakers were allowed to add. This bread incorporates loosely packed fresh bread crumbs, ideally made from toasted homemade bread. The nicer the bread you use for the bread crumbs, the better this loaf will be. I recently made a loaf of this using crumbs from a fennel and sesame studded semolina bread (from "Tartine Bread"), which turned out quite well. If you can't easily get multigrain hot cereal, quick-cooking steel cut oats will do. Either way, I hope you enjoy this. ;o) —AntoniaJames

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 84 grams (118 ml / ½ cup) uncooked multigrain cereal or quick-cooking steel cut oats
  • 50 grams (2/3 cup / 158 ml) loosely packed fresh crumbs made from one or two slices of 2-3 day old bread
  • 171 grams (3/4 cup / 177 ml) buttermilk
  • 24 grams (2 tablespoons / 30 ml) olive oil
  • 6 grams (1 teaspoon / 5 ml) kosher salt
  • ¼ teaspoon baking soda
  • 42 grams (2 tablespoons / 30 ml) honey, warmed
  • 7 grams (2 teaspoons /10 ml) instant yeast (also referred to as “rapid-rise”)
  • 310 grams (about 2 ½ cups / 590 ml) bread flour
  • 60 grams (½ cup / 118 ml) barley flour (or rye, whole wheat, all-purpose or bread flour)
  • Olive oil for brushing the loaf before baking
  • Butter for brushing on the baked loaf
Directions
  1. Put the uncooked cereal and bread crumbs in a medium bowl; cover with 177 grams (177 ml / 3/4 cup) boiling water and give it a quick stir.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, stir together the buttermilk, oil, salt and baking soda.
  3. Add the bread crumbs and cereal, along with the honey and the yeast. Stir to blend.
  4. Stir in the two flours. Put on the dough hook and run on low for about 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl if necessary, until the ingredients are thoroughly incorporated. Let rest for at least 20 minutes.
  5. Knead with the dough hook for 12 minutes. The dough will be sticky, but don’t despair. The dough needs to be sticky at this point, because the cereal has not fully absorbed the liquid in the dough.
  6. Generously oil a good-sized bowl, shape the dough into a ball and put it in the bowl. Flip it over to ensure that the entire ball of dough is coated with oil. Cover lightly with a tea towel and let rise until doubled, which should take 60 to 90 minutes, depending largely on the ambient temperature.
  7. Remove the dough from the bowl, stretch it into a rectangle about the length of the pan, and let rest while you oil a 9’ x 5” loaf pan. Roll the dough up tightly to form a loaf, squeezing it a bit and pinching the ends to bring the dough together. Put it in the prepared pan; let rise until it’s about an inch above the rim of the pan.
  8. Meanwhile, heat oven to 375 degrees. When ready to bake, slash the top and put in the oven. Check after 20 minutes and tent with foil if the crust has started to darken. Bake for a total of 45 minutes or until the internal temperature is 190 degrees.
  9. As soon as you take the loaf out of the oven, brush it with butter. I actually find it easier not to use a brush but rather, to rub the end of a stick of a butter over the bread, holding it in the paper in which the stick is wrapped.
  10. Remove from the pan immediately and let cool on a wire rack for at least an hour before slicing.
  11. Note: If you prefer to use active dry yeast, simple replace 59 grams (59 mil / ½ cup) of the buttermilk with the same amount of water. Use that water to proof the yeast. When it’s foamy, give it a stir and add with the soaked cereal and breadcrumbs. Use 2 ¼ teaspoons (1 standard packet in the U.S.) of active dry yeast.
  12. This recipe was submitted by AntoniaJames on Food52. (I include this because Food52 shares many recipes with other sites, without requiring any attribution to the Food52 user who created and posted the recipe.)
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  • TheWimpyVegetarian
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AntoniaJames

Recipe by: AntoniaJames

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8 Reviews

TheWimpyVegetarian
TheWimpyVegetarian November 20, 2010
I couldn't wait for this bread to cool down before trying it. It's really wonderful! Some small changes I made were to toast the cereal grains and the bread crumbs in a dry skillet on the stove until they were nice and fragrant and turned just a couple shades darker. And then soaked them both in 1/4 cup milk for about an hour. And I needed to add some water to the bread as it seemed a little dry when I was kneading it - not sure if I did something wrong. But it turned out just great!! We're having this for dinner with thirschfeld's Gatherer's Pie. Perfect for a rainy night.
 
thirschfeld
thirschfeld September 16, 2010
Hey AntonioJames that is a gorgeous loaf of bread. I have another question. I love steel cut oats and grains but do you find that they are really crunchy when baked in bread? I stopped using them for a while because of this but then found another great technique and that is to remove the grains weight in water from the total amount of liquid. I bring it to a boil and then pour it over the oats/grains and then cover it with plastic wrap so it doesn't evaporate and then I let it sit overnight. If it is hot I add the salt the recipe calls for to the grain to keep it from sprouting. Then I add the grains to the dough when I make it the next day. They are very tender in the final loaf. I guess I should have clarified the bread crumb tip too, I soak them in the water used for the bread recipe as well. It adds great flavor to the bread without having to retard it in the fridge overnight. If you really want to push flavor you can toast the bread crumbs in a 200 degree oven until they are very dark, it takes several hours, but then you wind up with a very dark rye flavored bread, even pumpernickel notes.
 
lapadia
lapadia September 16, 2010
Thanks for clarifying your bread crumb tip, thirschfeld!
 
SallyCan
SallyCan September 16, 2010
Another gorgeous loaf of bread. The texture and shape look perfect. The addition of barley flour and cereal is nice. The note about adding crumbs to bread dough caught my eye, too. I made your Buttermilk Oatmeal Bread the other day, using stand mixer and baking it in a bread pan, and it was super.
 
lapadia
lapadia September 16, 2010
Yes! Earlier I made the Oatmeal Bread and loved it.
 
TheWimpyVegetarian
TheWimpyVegetarian September 16, 2010
I want to try this hot tip of thirschfeld's too! This looks great AJ!
 
lapadia
lapadia September 15, 2010
Like it!
 
lapadia
lapadia September 16, 2010
Question about the "hot tip": I missed that discussion in the foodpickle, looked for it, but didn't find; so, what are all the benefits of this method?