Multigrain Bread: BBA Challenge

Today we made the 20th bread in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge: Multigrain Bread Extraordinare. This bread definitely lives up to it's name. It's a delicious and healthy bread. It tastes great toasted or with just butter. I haven't tried it with PB&J yet, but I'm sure it will taste yummy! It tastes particularly good with citrus marmalade.

This multigrain formula utilizes a soaker that is prepared the night before you plan to make the bread. I used a soaker of polenta, rolled oats, and wheat bran. The formula provides other options for the soaker but these are the ingredients I had readily available so that is what I used. When I make this bread again, I think I'll substitute quinoa or millet for the polenta and possibly buckwheat for the rolled oats. It might be awhile though - we've got 23 more breads to go... Oh dear! So many breads, so little time...

Back to the soaker... It only takes a few minutes to prepare the soaker, then you just leave it on the counter to, well soak. I prepared the soaker before bed, then left it on the counter all night until I was ready to bake the next evening after work. I made the bread in one evening. It's a very easy dough to work with!

Let's get started making this delicious bread!

If you're following along with us, turn to page 187 in the Bread Baker's Apprentice.

You might also enjoy these additional resources for making whole wheat and multigrain breads:

Whole Grain Bread Recipes Choose a Grain Mill for grinding flour

Whole Grains for milling your own flour

Whole Wheat Bread Cookbooks

Types of Wheat

Types of Flour

Wheat Flours

Wheat Grains

Non-Wheat Flours

Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire

Makes: One 2-pound loaf

Making the Soaker (Wednesday evening)

I really like using a soaker for multigrain and whole grain breads. I've used soakers with different types of breads and they always enhance the flavor and texture of the bread.

To make the soaker, combine the cornmeal, oats, and bran with water in a small bowl. I used bran that I had sifted from home-milled wheat flour.

The water should just cover the grain and will hydrate it slightly. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave it at room temperature overnight. This will help initiate enzyme action.

Making the Dough (Thursday evening)

This is what the soaker looks like after sitting on the counter all day.

Stir together the dry ingredients in a 4-quart bowl or the bowl of your mixer. I opted to use the mixer this time to make things really simple.

Add the soaker, rice, honey, buttermilk, and water. The addition of cooked brown rice provides added texture as well as moisture. Not to mention taste!

Mix on low speed with the paddle attachment until the ingredients form a ball. Add a little water if any of the flour remains separate.

Transfer the dough to a counter sprinkled with flour and knead the dough for about 12 minutes. I opted to knead this dough by hand. It was a wonderful dough to work with so I didn't want to miss that experience.

Sprinkle in more flour if necessary to make a dough that is soft and pliable, tacky but not sticky. I had to add more flour. I actually used less water than the recipe called for because it rained a lot this past week and was very damp.  

After you've kneaded the dough for awhile, the individual ingredients will come together and the dough will smooth out and become slightly shiny.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and roll the dough around to coat it with oil. Then cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

Let the dough ferment at room temperature for 90 minutes, or until the dough doubles in size. It took about 90 minutes maybe a little bit longer for the dough to rise.

Shaping the Loaf

Remove the dough from the bowl and press it by hand into a rectangle on the counter. It should be about 3/4 inch thick, 6 inches wide, and 8 to 10 inches long.

From here, form the dough into a loaf. Form it into a loaf by rolling the dough up and pinching the seams with the side of your hand. (refer to page 81 for detailed instructions). You can also refer to the detailed instructions in the post on Anadama Bread.

Place the loaf into a lightly oiled 9 by 5-inch loaf pan. You can also make a freestanding loaf or rolls if you prefer but I wanted some bread that I could eat my marmalade on. I just can't seem to get enough of it.

Mist the top of the loaf with water and sprinkle on some poppy seeds. I almost omitted this step but I'm glad I didn't. I really like the addition of the poppy seeds. Peter Reinhart knows what he's talking about when it comes to bread.

Mist the loaf with spray oil and cover with plastic wrap (or a towel).

Let the shaped loaf proof for 90 minutes, or until the dough nearly doubles in size. For loaf pans, the dough should crest fully above the top of the pan, doming about 1 inch above the pan at the center. It took a little longer for the dough to proof. Usually during the summer, the dough proofs very quickly because of the humidity here in the South. However, not so with this damp weather.

Baking the Loaf

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees with the oven rack on the middle shelf. Bake for about 20 minutes.

Then rotate the pan 180 degrees for even baking and let it bake for another 20 - 40 minutes for loaf-pan bread. The bread should be golden brown, and make a hollow sound when thumped on the bottom.

Cooling and Slicing the Loaf

Once the loaf is finished baking, remove it immediately from the pan. I removed it and thumped it on the bottom to make sure it was done.

Cool it on a wire rack for at least an hour before slicing or serving.

It was late when I finished baking the bread so I covered it with a towel and left it on the counter to cool. Then I went to bed. I had delicious bread waiting for me the next morning. Actually, I woke up in the middle of the night so I put it in a plastic bag so it wouldn't dry out. Then, I took it out of the bag the next morning so I could get this photo.

And of course, I had to eat a piece with the citrus marmalade. Mmmm...now that's what I call toast! Although, I don't think I even bothered with toasting this piece. It tasted great anyway.

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I'm submitting this bread to YeastSpotting, hosted by Susan of Wild Yeast!


Thanks for joining us this week in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. See you next time...

For Day 21 of the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge, we'll be making Pain a l'Ancienne. Refer to page 191 in the Bread Baker's Apprentice. This bread uses delayed-fermentation so be prepared to make the dough the day before you plan to bake it. You'll also need to allocate several hours the next day for further fermentation, shaping, panning and baking.


Click here to see all of the breads we've been making.

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Happy Baking!
Cathy