Bread Machine Multigrain Bread

The cold loosened at midweek — into the high twenties, which after the single digits felt nearly tropical — and I took advantage of the small reprieve to do the start-of-February woodstove deep clean. The ash drawer emptied, the firebox scraped, the gasket checked, the chimney cap inspected (with binoculars from the ground, my roof days being mostly behind me except for emergencies). The stove is in good working order for the rest of the season. The wood supply is holding well — about a third of the woodpile remains, which should be sufficient through April with the moderation of the late-season cold.

Made the proper Saturday baked beans — the full nine-hour bean pot operation, the same as last year and every year, the navy beans soaked overnight, the bean pot with onion in the bottom and salt pork on top and molasses and dry mustard and brown sugar dissolved in hot water poured over and the lid on. The kitchen smelled all day of beans and molasses and the slow rendering of the salt pork. I ate them Saturday with brown bread and a slice of leftover ham and was content in the way that a Saturday-night bean supper makes a man content. The bean discipline is one of the most reliable winter satisfactions, and I do not skip a Saturday.

The blog post for the week was about the ham — the pre-Easter ham, even though Easter is six weeks off, because I had been thinking about which ham to order this year and had decided on a small bone-in shoulder from Carl in Starksboro instead of the larger smoked ham from the Co-op. The post was about the difference between the two — the texture, the salt content, the way each suits a different style of cooking — and was directed at readers who plan their meat menus in advance and who appreciate the geometry of the choice. The comments came in from cooks who think about meat at the same level of detail and who debated, in the comment thread, the relative merits of various ham styles for various occasions. The thread became a small civilized argument that I enjoyed reading.

Sarah's 8 PM call ran long Sunday. We talked for almost an hour about Lucy's program, which is going well, and about Ben's teaching, which is going well, and about how Sarah has begun thinking about her own retirement timeline, which is not quite as far off as it once seemed. She is fifty-nine. She has been a veterinarian for thirty years. She talks about retirement now in the way I used to talk about it in 2010 — as a hypothetical that is beginning to take on shape in the middle distance. I listened. I did not push. The decision to retire is a decision a person makes on their own time, and the listening is the only useful contribution I can make from the kitchen in Hinesburg with the dog at my feet and the woodstove crackling and the bean pot empty on the stove.

The brown bread I ate alongside those beans on Saturday was a store loaf, which I will admit without apology — the nine-hour bean pot operation leaves little room for additional projects. But the combination of beans and good, dense, grainy bread is one I think about all week, and this bread machine multigrain loaf is the version I return to when I have the foresight to plan ahead. It requires almost no active effort, it fills the kitchen with a second warm smell alongside whatever is slow-cooking on the back of the stove, and it holds up to the molasses-dark broth of a proper bean supper in a way that a softer loaf simply does not.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 3 hr (bread machine cycle) | Total Time: 3 hr 10 min | Servings: 12 slices

Ingredients

1 cup warm water (110°F)
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup multigrain hot cereal mix (uncooked), such as 7-grain or 9-grain
1/4 cup rolled oats
2 tablespoons flaxseed (whole or ground)
2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten (optional, for better rise)
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (1 standard packet)

Instructions

Load the pan. Add ingredients to the bread machine pan in the order recommended by your machine’s manufacturer — typically liquids first, then dry ingredients, with the yeast added last in a small well in the center of the flour so it does not contact the water before the cycle begins.
Select the cycle. Choose the Whole Wheat or Basic cycle on your bread machine, select a 1.5-pound loaf size, and set the crust to medium. Press start.
Let the machine work. Allow the full cycle to run, approximately 3 hours depending on your machine. Resist opening the lid during the rise and bake phases.
Check the dough ball. About 10 minutes into the first knead cycle, lift the lid and check the dough. It should form a smooth, slightly tacky ball. If it looks too dry, add water one tablespoon at a time. If too wet, add bread flour one tablespoon at a time.
Cool before slicing. When the cycle completes, remove the pan immediately and turn the loaf out onto a wire rack. Allow to cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing — cutting too early will compress the crumb and make the bread gummy.
Slice and serve. Cut into 3/4-inch slices. Serve alongside baked beans, with butter, or with a slice of ham. The loaf keeps well wrapped at room temperature for 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.

Nutrition (per serving)

Bread Machine Multigrain Bread — The Loaf That Belongs on a Saturday Bean Supper Table