Let me get one thing out of the way here. I’m not one of those people that bakes homemade bread every week. I’m not even one of those people that makes homemade bread every month. And it’s not because I don’t like it; it’s because I like it too much. I have a lot of friends who bake several loaves each week and use it for sandwiches, etc. during the week. And that just doesn’t work for me. Because I don’t bake a fresh loaf of bread and just get it out when I need to make my my kid’s PB&J. I bake a loaf of fresh bread and slice off chunks to slather with butter and stuff in my face until it’s gone. Which is generally about 30 minutes after it comes out of the oven. My family can devour a loaf of fresh bread in a heartbeat, so for us, it’s more of a luxury than a staple! That being said, I love homemade bread. And good multigrain bread has eluded me until now. It’s just way too much effort to collect 6 or 7 different grains and then crack them, etc. I’d rather just run to a good bakery and grab myself a loaf. But I was watching an episode of Cook’s Country a while back and I watched them do the most brilliant thing- start a bread recipe with 7 grain hot cereal mix. Duh! it’s just fresh cracked grains; everything right in one little package. I was scribbling down the recipe from the show when it dawned on me to check my Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook, and sure enough, there was the recipe. My family loved this bread. It’s so super soft and packed with good-for-you grains (so you don’t feel as bad when you dip it in Nutella or something). It’s definitely going to be my new go-to wheat bread.
You can usually find boxes of seven-grain hot cereal mix near the hot cereals in the grocery store. Just make sure you’re getting a hot cereal. Bob’s Red Mill and Arrowhead Mills are two of the best to look for. My normal grocery store was out when I went (figures!) so I ran over to my local WinCo where they have an amazing bulk section, and sure enough, they had both a 7 grain and a 10 grain. The 10 looked like it had quite a bit of corn meal in it, so I stuck with 7 like the recipe called for. Look at all of those great, wholesome grains in there:
such a great shortcut! To soften the grains, you basically create a porridge mixture by soaking them in hot water. The grains soak up all of that water and the mixture thickens, like this:
That’s the base of your bread dough, and to it you’ll add some yeast (rapid rise), melted butter, and honey.
Then goes in a mix of all purpose flour and whole wheat flour. CI tested the bread with bread flour as well and found it made the bread too chewy, and all-purpose flour worked best. So if you’re used to using bread flour in your homemade bread, stick with all-purpose for this one.
Also, I feel like woman-of-the-year because I ground my own wheat. I know some of you do that all the time, but just let me have my moment, okay?? 😉 I’ve been loving my Wonder Mill wheat grinder. You can also get a grain mill attachment for your KitchenAid.
When everything comes together it’s a very soft dough. As you can see it kind of looks like cookie dough (but don’t be fooled; that would be sad. Those aren’t toffee bits, my friends.) At this point, cover the dough and let it rest for 20 minutes. I actually love recipes that require things like 20 minute resting periods. It’s just enough time to put all of the dishes in the dishwasher and wipe of the counters, etc.
After 20 minutes, add the salt and then knead with the dough hook on your stand mixer for 5 more minutes. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl, and you can add up to 3 tablespoons of additional flour, but I wanted to show you a picture. I think one the big mistakes people make when bread making is mis-judging what the dough should look and feel like and consequently adding too much flour, which makes bread dry and dense. I know because I did that a lot when I first started making bread! I thought bread dough should have the consistency of say, a thawed Rhodes roll. It wasn’t until I watched a friend of mine do it that I realized generally it should be much, much softer. So notice in my photo that it’s clearing the top of the bowl, but it doesn’t mean it’s one solid blob that’s not sticking at all. It’s still fairly sticky. And keep in mind you will be putting it out on a floured surface so that will add additional flour as well.
After the dough is finished kneading for 5 minutes, scrape it out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead it a few times and then form a nice smooth ball. Place that ball in a lightly oiled bowl and cover it with plastic and let it rise until double in size, about 45-60 minutes.
After it’s risen (don’t punch it down!) Gently scrap it out onto a lightly floured surface (I always use my Roul’Pat), divide it in two, and form each into a 9×6 rectangle
Roll it up into a log (preferably an even one, not lop-sided one like mine!) and pinch the edges closed. Spray it with cooking spray or just rub lightly oiled hands all over it and then roll it over some oats sprinkled onto the counter. They stick right on; easy peasy.
Place your two loaves into 2 9×5 inch bread pans. Cover them with plastic and let them rise about 30 minutes. Then pop them in the oven and watch your house suddenly smell like a bakery.
Here’s another great tip for bread making. For a long time I didn’t know how to tell if my bread was done. You can tap on the top to listen for a hollow sound, but that’s never been super accurate for me. You can’t cut into it to check, nor does a toothpick test really work all that well, so I was constantly overcooking bread, or having it turn out dough-y inside. Then I figured out, duh! Use a thermometer! Best way to make perfectly cooked bread. Most average yeast breads like this are done at right around 200 degrees.
Let it cool in the pans for about 5 minutes and then take them out of the pans and cool on a rack. If you’re going to just grab chunks and slather them in butter (uh..who does that? Not me.) then you can rip into it when it’s till a little warm. But if you’re going to use it for sandwiches (and it’s really good for sandwiches) you’ll want to be sure to let it cool completely- at least 2 hours, more if you can handle it. And thanks to a reader for reminding me about this tip: If you plan on slicing bread like this for sandwiches it’s really helpful to have an electric knife. The bread is so soft that it really helps. Or if nothing else, make sure to use a really sharp bread knife.
The inside is the perfect texture; soft and springy, with the perfect amount of grains.
It’s not overly wheat-y or crunchy, it just tastes flavorful and wholesome and the grains are a nice tender texture. My kids ate it right up.
If I was the kind of person who could make homemade bread every week, I would make this one. But alas, I am not. I’m the kind of person who can buy bread at Costco every week. And make this on the weekends simply to eat with butter and jam. Yep. That’s me.
Multigrain Bread
Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook
Ingredients
1 1/4 cup (6 1/4 ounces) seven-grain hot cereal mix
2 1/2 cups boiling water
3 cups (15 oz) all-purpose flour (not bread flour)
1 1/2 cups (8 1/4 oz) whole wheat flour
1/4 cup honey
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled*
2 1/2 teaspoons instant or rapid-rise yeast
1 tablespoon salt
Optional (I omitted): 3/4 cup unsalted pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds
1/2 cup (1 1/2 oz) old-fashioned rolled oats or quick oats
*If you’re using salted butter, just decrease the additional salt by just a bit.
Instructions
Place cereal mix in bowl of stand mixer fitted with dough hook and pour boiling water over it; let stand, stirring occasionally, until mixture cools to 100 degrees and resembles thick porridge, about 1 hour. Whisk flours together in separate bowl.
Once grain mixture has cooled, add honey, butter, and yeast and mix on low speed until combined. Add flour mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, and knead until cohesive mass starts to form (*note: some at high altitudes have noted they have not needed all of the flour, go by look and feel and stop adding flour if you need to!) 1 1/2-2 minutes; cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let dough rest for 20 minutes. Add salt and knead on medium-low speed until dough clears sides of bowl, 3-4 minutes (if it does not clear sides, add 2-3 tablespoons additional all-purpose flour and knead until it does. Don’t add more!) continue to knead dough for 5 more minutes. Add seeds (if using) and knead for another 15 seconds. Transfer dough to lightly floured counter and knead by hand until seeds are dispersed evenly and dough forms smooth, round ball. Place dough in large, lightly greased bowl; cover tightly with plastic and let rise at room temperature until nearly doubled in size, 45-60 minutes.
Grease two 9×5 inch loaf pans. Transfer dough to lightly floured counter and divide in half. Press 1 piece of dough into 9×6 inch rectangle, with short side facing you. Roll dough toward you into firm cylinder, keeping roll taut by tucking it under itself as you go. Turn loaf seam side up and pinch it closed. Repeat with second piece of dough. Spray loaves lightly with water or vegetable il spray. Roll each loaf in oats to coat evenly and place seam side down in prepared pans, pressing gently into corners. Cover loaves loosely with greased plastic and let rise at room temperature until nearly doubled in size 30-40 minutes. Dough should barely spring back when poked with knuckle.
Thirty minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Bake until loaves register 200 degrees, 35-40 minutes. Transfer pans to wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Remove loaves from pans, return to rack, and let cool to room temperature, about 2 hours, before slicing and serving.
Storage: Bread can be wrapped in double layer of plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 3 days. Wrapped with additional layer of foil, bread can be frozen for up to a month.
For those without a stand mixer, Cook’s Illustrated recommends: “Stir wet and dry ingredients together with a stiff rubber spatula until the dough comes together and looks shaggy. Transfer the dough to a clean counter and knead by hand to form a smooth, roughd ball, 15-25 minutes, adding additional flour, if necessary, to prevent the dough from sticking to the counter. Proceed with recipe as directed.”
**Make sure to come check out The Scoop tomorrow, we’re going to be giving away a copy of this Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook!
I use a kitchen aid and when I add my flour I use the dough hook. It seems like it takes a long time to combine. Any suggestions?
This is the very first bread I’ve ever made and it turned out great! My whole family loved it. I’m going to make it with more whole wheat flour next time. Hopefully it turns out good.
This recipe looks awesome and I really enjoy the step by step pics & instructions! I was wondering if canola oil can be subbed for the melted butter in the recipe? I was also wondering if I can fallow the recipes to a T living near Co Springs (I’m at about 5,700 elevation) or if I have to make any adjustments to produce a “normal” loaf of bread, i.e. a high altitude bread flour instead of AP (I did read what CI said about using an AP flour for the recipe instead of bread flour but the recipe may not have been tested at a high altitude) for the multi-grain bread? Thanks!
Andrea, the 10-grain cereal at Winco is great in this one. Course-ground is fine; doesn’t have to be just cracked. The kiddos love it! Thanks!
I made this bread and wrote about it here. It is hands down my favorite bread, store bought or homemade. Thank you so much for posting the recipe. I had been looking for it ever since I saw it featured on America’s Test Kitchen. You guys are the best! 😉
I’ve made bread for years! This is THE BEST multigrain bread I have ever tried! The temp. tip of 200º is such a help too. I love love love this recipe.
I can’t seem to find any 7 grain that is just cracked. It’s all ground or rolled. Any suggestions? I tried winco and Amazon.
Be aware that if you don’t buy Organic you’ll be eating GMO Wheat & Corn ..Just Sayin”…..
I’ve hit this page like 65 times now. Just made the bread and it’s pretty good. Seems moist enough inside, which is what I was looking for. I would have never thought of using hot cereal.
Substituted margarine and used Trader Joe’s hot multi-grain cereal, all-purpose flour instead of whole wheat because I didn’t have any.
I just might buy a bread machine so I can make this every week though. I don’t have the time to make this bread regularly.
I made this bread yesterday and it is excellent. The directions were nice and detailed which was very helpful since I had not made a multi-grain bread before. It was very convenient to use the 7 grains cereal although I had to go to a specialty store to find it. I will definitely make this recipe again.
This recipe looks amazing, I’m definitely going to try it out — Thank you!!
I hope someone can help me. I’ve tried to make this recipe 4 times and the bread never rises in the pan after it is shaped and it comes out of the oven like a brick. Any suggestions?
I would try new yeast!
I live in the sticks, so I have to order my 7-grain cereal from Amazon. And I get sunflower seeds from there, as well. A word of caution for those using a Kitchen Aid mixer: I had the 600 Professional Series mixer, and this recipe really bogs it down. One time I even had to stop the kneading because the motor was starting to smoke. (I understand there is one KA mixer a size bigger, didn’t know that at the time of purchase.) Anyway, after 2 years of begging for a Bosch mixer, my hubbie finally came through! I have all the ingredients for this and plan to double it today! It is truly divine bread. One question, I have been told that unless you use 100% whole wheat, you aren’t really making a healthy bread. I am hoping someone knows if that is true or not. My thoughts are that the 7-grain cereal more than compensates for the all-purpose flour used in this recipe. Btw, I LOVE Cook’s Country!
Loved the idea of this recipe, combed rural Arkansas for a 7 grain cereal….ended up with a, Ezekiel 4:9 (yep, this is a red state) as my only choice. Got to the yeast part, and realized my yeast is “Active Dry,” not rapid rise as in the recipe, or bread machine as in the photo. I researched and found that the temperature of 100 degrees is actually right for active dry…..my bread is. DELICIOUS ! It rose perfectly, all that. So, would it be better if I used Rapid Rise? Thanks for the wonderful instructions…I realize that I, too, usually add too much flour!
Here’s another option: you can make this with leftover (precooked) multigrain cereal. We make a large batch of multigrain cereal each week for breakfast. I had some leftover and decided to try using it to make this bread. It worked out perfectly! I used 2 cups precooked multigrain cereal and 1 cup boiling water in place of the first to ingredients. I only just waited until the mixture was cooled down enough to not kill the yeast and then made the bread as directed. It worked out great! Makes less crunchy bread, as the grains are more fully cooked, but still retains all the health benefits and flavor!
AHHH! I have finally found a bread recipe that I can not only handle but it DELICIOUS. Thank you for sharing! 🙂
I just made this bread, I am waiting for it to rise. I don’t think I would even attempt to make it with out my kitchen aid. Some people, when asked what they would grab first in case of a fire often answer, pictures,memorabilia and the like. Me? My kitchen aid, who I’ve named Betty White as she is a hard working woman.
i saw this recipe for multigrain bread this week and wanted to make some so today i made this recipe and and it came out good and delicious wonderful recipe the only changes i made to this recipe i used two cups of all purpose flour and one 9 grain flour and this recipe came out excellent and that was the only change i made to the recipe i would make this delicious bread again thanks for this recipe
Hi!… This is a super recipe… I have never made bread before and I love eating multigrain bread. So just had to try this. Turned out quite good. I don’t have a mixer so did the kneading with my hand… and I am happy with the results… My only observation, that I couldn’t make sense of, was the measurements of the cup to the oz measurements.. They don’t tally….. So I decided to stick to the cup measurement. Thank you for sharing such a great recipe!
Oh and I used bread flour cause that’s the only flower I had, light and yummy bread! I also thought of using brown rice syrup instead of honey, I don’t think it would make a difference cause the portion of sweetener is very small. You don’t really taste the sweetness in the bread.
Made this last night….note to self: don’t start bread at 6pm…turned out very yummy indeed!! Not a fan of multigrain bread to begin with, but the pictures made it look so good that I tried it. Glad I did!
can you substitute whole wheat white flour for the all purpose flour?
Thanks
Jim
Hi Jim, I’ve never done it with whole wheat white flour so you’d have to experiment!
Have you ever tried this with brown rice syrup? I want to make this, but don’t have any honey!
I don’t think it would make a difference cause the portion of sweetener is very small. You don’t really taste the sweetness in the bread. But it is yummy bread!
Is there a reason why this couldn’t be made with all whole wheat flour instead of using half all purpose? I’ve never baked my own bread before and wanted to try this recipe. Your pictures look so good! I just really don’t like to use all purpose flour in anything and try to stick to whole wheat if I can.
Using some all purpose flour keeps it soft and light. Whole wheat can add density and heaviness to a bread, but you can certainly experiment if you’d like to. Some recipes work that way and others don’t!
Can this work for a bread machine?
I can hardly wait to try this recipe, thanks so much! I totally relate to your reasoning behind only baking bread once and awhile, as I too love homemade bread the same way you do. I also love the way you write, you are very funny, I lol’d quite a few times!
Oh my goodness…I’ve been trying to find a yummy multi grain bread recipe and you delivered!! My 8 year old daughter and I made your butter and now we’re craving bread to go with it. Thank you so much for your inspiring recipes. Life is much easier with you two doing the legwork of coming up with delicious recipes. Don’t ever stop!!
This looks really good! Do you think I could use stone ground whole wheat flour instead of AP?
Do you have a good yeast bread just using regular flour? I normally buy Roman meal and perhaps this bread is close but I would like to see a recipe for just regular bread! Not whole wheat – family is not into whole wheat but will tolerate multigrain but the seeds might scare them away!! Sorry- we have to go one step at a time towards wholesomeness…..
I was so excited to make this recipe. However, I didn’t have any 7 grain hot cereal. So I head out to Whole Foods and find out that they only have 5 grain hot cereal. Will the recipe still turn out good?