Recipe: Seven-Grains Bread (bread machine)

SEVEN-GRAINS BREAD
Source: The Complete Bread Machine Bakery Book by Richard W. Langer

Multigrain cereals in a wide variety of mixes are available at health-food stores and some supermarkets. The most popular of these blends is probably one version or another of the seven-grains mixture used here, an Arrowhead Mills mix of coarsely ground wheat, oats, triticale, millet, soybeans, buckwheat, and yellow corn. A dense, textured bread has no equal as a foil for a good, sharp cheese or a flavorsome pate, and it was in search of such a bread that I decided to try this combination of grains to vary a whole-wheat loaf I'd been baking for some time. The bread is sweeter than what one might expect from the addition of a mere quarter cup of honey, and, if you prefer, the honey can be omitted and an egg or just the white from a large egg can be used in its place. The loaf is also quite compact and square; for a somewhat lighter texture, 1 1/2 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour can he substituted for 1 1/2 cups of the whole-wheat flour.

1 cup seven-grains cereal
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1/4 Cup honey or, if preferred, 1 egg or the white of 1 large egg
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups whole-wheat flour or 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour and 1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt to taste
2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Put the seven-grains cereal mixture in the baking pan of your bread machine and pour the boiling water over it. Let the mush cool to the point where it feels merely warm before incorporating the other ingredients, unless your machine has a separate dispenser for the yeast, in which case no wait is necessary, since the yeast not added to the dough for the first half hour or so of mixing.

Next, add the honey or egg or egg white, the olive oil, the whole-wheat flour or all-purpose and whole-wheat flours combined, and the salt. Top it off with the yeast, unless directed otherwise in the instructions for your machine.

Bake on full cycle, using a medium setting for color if your machine permits this choice.