September 16, 2009

Our Tasty Multigrain Bread

Our Finished Loaf
We love multigrain bread. Unfortunately, our local bakery stopped making our favorite bread.

So we started to play around with a substitute recipe using the ingredients on the label and came up with this great tasting, low salt, no fat bread.   It tastes great and is good for you too!

We make it in our Zojirushi BCC X20 bread machine on it's basic Wheat Bread setting.   This is a 2 pound machine and this loaf weighs just over 2 pounds.

You could also make this machine by hand, but our bread machine does such a great job we let it do it's thing.

You really need to use a scale to measure most of the dry ingredients as volumetric measurement of flour is too imprecise.

If you don't create a perfect loaf, refer to the troubleshooting guide in your bread machine manual.  Since we don't use salt, the ratio of wet ingredients, dry ingredients and yeast needs to be pretty precise.

To start, add to your bread machine:
  • 6 T - Unsweetened Apple Sauce (this substitutes for fat)
  • 2 T - Malt Extract (mainly for flavor, we buy it at a home brewers supply store)
  • 1 - 12 Oz Beer (we use Negra Modello)
  • 1 T Lecithin
  • ¼ tsp Ascorbic Acid (the Gluten, Lecithin and Ascorbic Acid reinforce the structure of the bread)
  • ½ tsp - Salt (controls yeast raise)
  • 1½ tsp - Active Dry Yeast
Next add the dry ingredients:
  • 230 Grams - Whole Wheat Flour
  • 230 Grams - Dark Rye Flour
  • 60 Grams - Millet Flour
  • 60 Grams - Vital Wheat Gluten
Start up the machine and when the bread machine indicates it's time for add ins, we lightly toast these ahead of time on the stovetop in a dry skillet:
  • 2 heaping T Caraway Seeds
  • 3 heaping T Flax Seeds
  • 3 heaping T Millet Seeds
  • 3 heaping T Sunflower Seeds
We like this bread in sandwiches or just toasted.  Enjoy!