Multi-grain Bread Recipe Recipe

How to make it

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• Mix corn meal, bulgar wheat, flax seed, and barley in a 2-quart pot, and add enough water to cover +2 inches. Bring to boil on stovetop, stirring often, turn down heat to simmer for about 20 minutes. Do not leave unattended, stir often. It should be like soupy cream of wheat (or grits, for us southerners, LOL). If it gets too stiff, add more water (these ingredients will soak up quite a bit of water, and that is the idea.)
• Remove from heat, and allow to cool.
• Put enough oil or butter to coat a large stainless steel or glass bowl, combine the flour, cooled grain mixture, salt, honey, egg yolk, butter, gluten and yeast, and mix well.
• If the mixture is too dry, use a bit of water, just a little at a time to get it to the right consistency for turning out of the bowl and kneading, if it is too soupy, add some bread flour—these measurements vary quite a bit from batch to batch; I was surprised.
• Turn dough out of bowl onto a well-floured surface. This dough is typically very sticky at this stage, so don’t worry about over-flouring the surface (and your hands, and the dough)….add as much as you need to as you knead. :-)
• Knead until the dough becomes elastic and you can shape it into a ball, usually about 5-6 minutes. Be careful not to over-knead it.
• Shape into a ball, cover with a towel and let rise until it doubles. Be patient (I’m not).
• Punch down, separate dough in half, shape into loaves (no loaf pans needed as long as you have a stone, or a cookie sheet), score the loaves diagonally with a sharp serrated knife
• After shaping, let the loaves rise for approx. 40 more minutes or until almost double in size (harder for me to have patience this time....)
• While the loaves are rising, put a cast iron skillet on the bottom shelf of your oven.
• Turn on oven and preheat to 450*
• Prepare an egg wash with the egg white and water. Just before you are ready to put the loaves in the oven, brush them with the egg wash and sprinkle the top of the loaf with rolled oats—Quaker Quick Rolled Oats is what I use.
• Slide loaves into the oven, and pour the 1/2 cup water into the skillet and immediately close the oven door to trap the steam. Bake loaves for approx. 30 minutes
• Remove loaves from oven, let cool for at least 30 minutes. Enjoy!