BBD: Whole Grain Bread with Ramon

I’ve just discovered “Bread Baking Day” and since I use only home baked breads instead of store-bought (Guatemala is tortilla country), I thought this would be a great incentive for me to play around with different breads instead of cooking the same tried and true recipe week after week. For the month of May, the theme of breadbakingday is Multi-grain Breads. When I arrived in New Brunswick last week, one of my first purchases was a multi-grain cereal, and I figured this would make an exceptionally great tasting bread. When I began rounding up the ingredients, I discovered, in Mom’s pantry, a bag of Ramon flour that I had brought up with me last year, and I decided to include it for extra flavor and nutrition.

It took ages for me to find a recipe that I thought would be adaptable to the combination of whole grains with Ramon flour … but I eventually found one that used bran (which I substituted for the whole grain cereal) and wheat germ (which I substituted for the Ramon flour) in The Bread Machine Cookbook”. The description of the recipe says “Full of fibre yet moist and lush. Very good for breakfast”. This sounded perfect.

Whole Grain Bread with Ramon

Ingredients:

PLUS the Ramon flour that I forgot to put in the photo above …

Ingredients:

1 c milk
3 Tbsp. veg oil
2 Tbsp. honey
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup ramon flour
3/4 cup multi-grain cereal
2 c white flour
1 1/2 tsp yeast

1. Combine yeast with 1/4 cup of warm water and the honey and set aside to proof.

2. Combine all dry ingredients.

3. Combine milk and vegetable oil

4. Add proofed yeast mixture to milk mixture, then add both to the flour mixture.

5. Mix well. Turn out on floured surface and knead well.

6. Leave in loosely covered bowl in warm place to rise.

7. When it has risen approximately double in size, punch down and leave to rise again.

8. When risen again, punch down, knead and shape into a loaf. Place in loaf pan and let rise again.

9. When ready, put in preheated 350 degree F. oven and bake for 45 minutes.

The Verdict:

I was called out during the last rising, and I think it could have risen more if allowed … so it was a bit flatter than I would have liked … however, that didn’t affect the taste which was superb! The multi-grain cereal gave it a nice crunchy texture and the ramon flour added a subtle but unique flavor. As the recipe promised, it was moist and lush fresh from the oven … we ate it with baked beans for dinner …

and toasted with home made red currant jelly for breakfast …

(and that was the best!!)