7 Grain Bread We refer to this bread as Kirk's Bread. One of our neighbors underwent extreme surgery for colon cancer and there are very few foods he can successully eat. I was baking bread one day and offered him a loaf -- he declined saying that he could only eat breads with a lot of fiber. I went through my pantry and pulled out all of the 'fiber' I could the next time I baked and over the course of a few months, this is the bread I ended up with. This is an original recipe that I make every week so Kirk can have his bread. I've made it so many times now it's more of a mindless mixing of the ingredients, so I don't have an actual recipe, I have a formula. Below is as close to a recipe as I can get. Preferment: 1 Cup of all purpose flour 1tsp of active yeast 1tsp of honey 1 Cup of room temp water. Mix, cover and set aside for a couple of hours. The preferment will bubble up and double in size (if it doesn't then there is something wrong with the yeast and you need to start over with fresh yeast) Dough: All of the preferment 2 cups of King Arthur bread flour Mixture of grains: 1/3Cup of Rolled Oats, 1/3Cup of flaxseed, 1/3 cup of whole wheat flour 2 TBS of Millet (cooked or uncooked) 2 TBS of Wheat Germ 2-3 TBS of cooked brown rice 2 TBS of dark brown sugar 2 TBS of local honey 1 1/4tsp active dry yeast 1tsp of kosher salt approx. 1 Cup of water Mix all of the ingredients in the mixing bowl - using the paddle attachment, get everything in place for the mixing. Add the water all at once and start the mixer. It will take about a minute or so for the dough to come together and gather up all of the flour and grains. Once this occurs, turn off the mixer. Remove the paddle attachment and put on the dough hook. Test the dough for wetness... you want a dough that is sticky, but doesn't actually come away from the dough ball when you touch it. If it is too dry, add a Tablespoon of water.. if it is too wet, add 1/4 Cup of flour, mix for another minute and test again. If all is well, continue mixing for another minute. In the meantime create a little 'oil slick' on the counter where you will do the Stretch and Fold technique... dump the dough into the oil spot and begin the stretches and folds. Once you have repeated the process 4 times, place the dough into an oiled bowl, cover and let it rise for 1-2hrs.. double in bulk. Dump the risen dough onto a floured surface and make your choice of loaves.. I usually do one regular loaf (for Kirk) and possibly a couple of batards for us.. or I might make some rolls - it depends on the need. Put the dough in the appropriate pans (loaf pan, or on a piece of parchment on a cookie sheet - or because I have a baking stone, I use my pizza peal covered with parchment paper that I can slide off onto the stone) Spray oil on the top, cover and let the dough rise a second time.. usually about an hour. About 1/2hr into the rise set the oven to 400 degrees if I'm doing loaves, or 425 if I am doing batards (and loaves) and let it start heating up. Just before the dough goes into the oven, I take a sharp knife and make slash marks (you could also do this before the second rise).. I'll make 3 diagonal slashes for the batards and maybe just one slash down the middle for the loaf. If doing both loaf and batard, I bake the batard first on the baking stone... I have a cake pan under the stone and a spray bottle filled with water. Slide the parchment paper with the batard directly onto the stone.. quickly add 1 C of water to the pan and spray the top of the batard with water. Bake for approx. 15 minutes, remove from the oven with the pizza peel and put on a rack to cool. Turn the oven temp down to 400 degrees and bake the loaf. You can spray the top with water if you want a little crispier crust. Bake for approx. 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and the pan, and cool on a rack. Now here is the thing.... resisting the temptation of cutting into the warm bread and slathering it with butter. My enjoyment of the warm bread far out weighs all of those directions that tell you not to slice it until it's cool! Note: I store the breads in bags called Bread Armour - I find them on Ebay and they work wonderfully whether you are keeping the bread on the counter or in the freezer. Back to Yeast Breads