Everything but the kitchen sink it seems, can go into this bread (as long as it's good for you). It's my adaptation of, and a cross between a multi-grain recipe I published in my first cookbook, The Final Cut (now out of print) and a 7-grain recipe from my bread machine manual.
I was looking for something healthy, full of fiber and delicious. I wanted bread with a fine, homogenous, spongy texture (not dry or crumbly) that would do double duty: It had to hold together a veggie sandwich and maintain its integrity when dipped into one of my favorite soups (Beef Barley, or Turkey Wild Rice). Oh yes, it also had to toast well.
Note: I'm not a big fan of crust and often cut it completely off. With this bread, I can do that, get a nice clean edge, and the slice still holds together nicely.
You'll find this on our kitchen counter any day of the week. Here's the recipe, make it in your bread machine:
Herbed, Oatmeal-Almond, Multi-Grain Bread
Paddle in place, put all ingredients in the bread pan of your machine in the order given and bake as directed for your particular bread machine model. They are all very similar and this recipe should work as well in your machine as it does in mine.
1-1/2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons olive oil (or any good, cold-pressed, omega-3 oil)
1 tablespoon molasses (or honey)
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1 cup rolled oats (5-minute oatmeal is okay, but not instant)
1/3 cup almond meal/flour (This ingredient is pricey. Sometimes I swap it with a handful of crushed sunflower nuts.)
1 cup whole wheat bread flour
1/3 cup vital wheat gluten
1/3 cup rye flour
1/3 cup buckwheat flour
1/3 cup flaxseed meal
1/3 cup cornmeal
1/3 cup wheat germ (or bran flakes)
1 teaspoon powdered bay leaves (or rosemary, bay might be hard to find, I make my own)
1 tablespoon dry yeast (add last, make an indentation in center of dry ingredients for yeast)
This is my favorite set of proportions, but don't fret if you don't have every ingredient. You can use more wheat flour in place of some of the other things, or more of one ingredient and omit another. The only important thing to keep true, is the balance between wet and dry ingredients. You will need a total of 4-1/3 cups of flour and grain meal for the 1-1/2 cups water.
Other flour and grain options: spelt flour or brown rice flour. Other seasonings: dill, curry, cumin.
163 calories per serving if loaf is cut into 12 slices. Provides 4.5g of dietary fiber.
