Multigrain Bread

Growing up, I had some family friends who baked bread every week.  It was wonderful to visit their house on Friday afternoon and smell the delicious aroma of freshly-baked bread.  Although I have been successful with many recipes, including pizza dough, loaf bread has eluded me ... until now! 

This recipe, makes two loaves of multigrain bread.  The texture is light and soft.  This is an easy recipe to make, assuming you have a stand mixer with a dough hook.  Total time required to prepare is about 4 hours.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4C multi-grain cereal mix
• 2 1/2C boiling water
• 3C white all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2C whole wheat flour
• 1/4C honey
• 4T olive oil
• 1pkg instant or rapid-rise yeast
• 1T salt

Directions

1. Place the cereal mix in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook.  Add boiling water and mix well.  Stirring occasionally, allow this mixture to thicken and cool, until it is about 100 degrees.  This takes about 45-60 minutes.
2. In a separate bowl, add flours and stir until combined.
3. Add honey, oil, and yeast to multi-grain cereal mixture.  Mix on low speed until combined.
4. Add flour, 1/2C at a time, until all flour is added.  
5. After dough is mixed well, cover tightly with plastic and allow the dough to rest for 20 minutes.
6. After 20 minutes, remove plastic wrap and add salt.  
7. Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes.  If the dough looks too sticky, add 3-4T flour, but not more! 
8. Place dough in a large, lightly oiled bowl, and cover tightly with plastic.  Let it rise at room temperature until nearly doubled, 45-60 minutes. 
9. Grease two 9x5-inch loaf pans.  
10. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured counter and divide into two pieces.  DO NOT PUNCH DOWN THE DOUGH!  Shape to fit your pans.  
11. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
12. Place dough in the pans (seam-side down) and cover loosely with plastic wrap or damp cloth.  Allow to rise (at room temperature) for 30-40 minutes. 
13. Bake at 375 degrees for 35-40 minutes.  Most breads are baked when the internal temperature reaches 200 degrees.  Rather than tapping on the bottom of a loaf or guessing, using a meat thermometer to check the temperature allows for consistent, measurable results.
14. Remove pans from oven and place on a wire cooling rack for 5 minutes.  After five minutes, remove loaves from pans and allow to cool completely, approximately 2 hours.