Multigrain Bread

I love this bread. It's one of the first I successfully made. It's pretty, and I feel good eating it. (Also: "Good toast. *crunch*". I can't say good toast without thinking of Nacho Libre.) My mom started making this bread out of Peter Reinhart's book The Bread Baker's Apprentice, then she taught me. The recipe below is for one loaf.

SOAKER:

• 3 tablespoons quinoa or cornmeal
• 3 tablespoons rolled oats or buckwheat
• 2 tablespoons wheat bran or oat bran
• 1/4 cup water at room temperature

DOUGH

• 3 cups flour
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon yeast
• 3 tablespoons cooked brown rice
• 1 1/2 tablespoon honey
• 1/2 cup buttermilk or milk
• 3/4 cup water, at room temperature

The night before: Combine the soaker ingredients and cover with plastic wrap. Leave on the counter. If you don't make the bread in the morning then put the soaker in the fridge or it will start to mold.

Mix in a large bowl: flour, brown sugar, salt, yeast.

Add: soaker, rice, honey, buttermilk, water.

Stir until the ingredients form a ball. Add water if flour remains.

If you have a mixer knead on medium-low speed for 8-10 minutes. Then knead by hand for a minute to make a ball. OR: Knead by hand for 12 minutes. Make the dough soft, pliable, and tacky but not sticky. It should also be slightly shiny.

Put the dough in an oiled bowl and role it around to cover with oil. Cover with plastic wrap. Let it rise until doubled in size.

Press into a long rectangle and role into a loaf. (See in the picture above how the end of the bread has a swirl?) Place the loaf in a lightly oiled loaf pan. You can mist the top with water and sprinkle with poppy seeds if you want. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let it rise about one inch above the pan.

Start to preheat the oven before the loaf has fully risen. It rises quickly and also has a lot of oven spring. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit with a rack adjusted to the middle shelf.

Slit the top of the bread slightly with a knife before putting it in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes. Turn the bread around and cook for 15 to 20 more minutes. It should be golden brown and hollow sounding when thumped on the bottom.

Remove immediately from the pan and cool on a rack for one to two hours before serving. You may be tempted to cut into it right away, I usually am. It just smells so good. BUT, don't because during this phase the bread is actually finishing cooking. It won't kill you to eat it earlier but it just won't be fully done.