Multigrain Bread 

Tags (edit):  Breads  

Instructions
Heat water, yogurt and oil to simmering. Stir in oats, wheat germ and bran. Set aside until cooled to very warm (120s to 130sF), about 30 minutes.

In large bowl, combine 1 cup flour, sugar, undissolved yeast and salt. Add cooled bran mixture; blend well. Stir in 1 egg and enough remaining flour to make soft dough. Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 6 to 8 minutes. Cover; let rest on floured surface 10 minutes.

Divide dough in half. Roll each to 12- × 7-inch rectangle. Beginning at short end of each, roll up tightly as for jelly roll. Pinch seams and ends to seal. Place, seam sides down, in two greased 8 1/2- × 4 1/2-inch loaf pans. Cover; let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 30 to 45 minutes.

With sharp knife, make three diagonal slashes (1/4-inch deep) on each loaf. Lightly beat remaining egg; brush on loaves. Sprinkle with wheat germ or oats. Bake at 375sF for 25 to 30 minutes or until done. Remove from pans; cool on wire racks.

This recipe published with BigOven, and can be imported instantly by BigOven users. Download your free trial at www.bigoven.com.


Yields: 24 Servings


Fleischmann's Yeast
notes:  Bread machines are limited things and are generally weak. For heavier doughs you would normally use a restaurant-class mixer. It's a bit larger than an ordinary home mixer and quite a bit stronger. Kitchen Aid, Hobart are a few of the good names. Expect to pay around $700-1000 for a low-end restaurant-class mixer. These mixers are great and some either come with attachments or you could get attachments for them that would give them meat-grinding and shreading capabilities. Once you use (or your wife uses :) ) such a device you will never go back to a simple hand-held or bowl mixer... They are strong, sturdy (you get some serious steel with them and very little plastic), and easier to clean -- they come with large stainless steel bowls that can be scrubbed mercilessly. Having said that, if your wife will consider another option, it is possible to make the heaviest dough in the cheapest food processor: Not mixer, not "osteriser" -- but food processor. The physics there is a bit different: The [sharp steel] blades slice through the dough quickly and effect a kneading motion. This takes considerably less effort than to knead the dough with hooks, as mixers do. There's a book you can get on this technique: The Best Bread Ever. But the technique is simple enough to make the book unneeded unless you want the recipes, which are great. Just add all the dry ingredients (including the yeast! -- no startup time needed) MINUS A TABLE SPOON, then add the oils, fat, eggs, etc, then give it a pulse. As you're pulsing it, add water (or milk) until most of the four catches on. The dough will form a solid mass, then get chopped up, then stick again, etc. Keep pulsing until all the liquids are absorbed, and the solid mass seems smooth. If it's too wet, add the table spoon of dry ingredients (just flour is fine), and knead again. The ball of dough can get chopped up, but it will form again when all the flour (or moisture) are thoroughly blended. This method has several advantages: - I don't need to measure much -- the water is added until the dough is smooth, not sticky, and feels right. This gives a more consistent result than following a recipe because no recipe will take into account the variations in water content in the local ingredients. - The whole process takes under a minute once you get it down. It takes about 2 minutes for the inexperienced. :) - The bread you get dough will be kneaded thoroughly. - The technique leaves much less of a mess, is far cleaner and neater than any other, and is definitely faster. -- You can therefore focus on the more creative aspects of breadmaking -- composition of the dough, shaping the dough, etc. - Many people have food processors but very few have restaurant-class mixers like kitchen aid. So if you use this technique you can prepare bread at friends' houses. :) I've used this technique to make many different kinds of bread -- from chalah to multi-grain, to raisin bread, to pita bread, to babels -- and it has never failed me. I use a $35-40 cheap food processor I got in a supermarket 6 years ago while I was a student in the US. It's old and weak, and I'm using it with a 110-220V adapter so it's only getting 50Hz, but it's putting out great bread dough every time.