My husband does not eat any white bread; instead he will only eat wholemeal bread. Thus, I have to vary my wholemeal bread by adding cereals - wheat (wheat germ or bran), rye, oats and corn (maize) or seeds - sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds and Chia Seeds or nuts - walnut, cashew nuts, almonds, pecans, macadamia and Brazil nuts. For the nuts, they have to be ground before they are added to the dough.
The most common healthy bread that I often bake is Oat and Multi-Grain Cereal Wholemeal Loaf or Buns. Besides being healthy bread, the Oat Wholemeal Bread is tasty. It is also easy to bake.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of wholemeal flour
- 1/2 cup of high protein or bread flour
- 1 cup of oats
- 1/4 cup of Nestum multi-grain cereals
- 2 tablespoons of sugar (You may replace it with brown sugar which I sometimes do.)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoon of yeast (I use Mari-pan instant yeast.)
- 1 cup of warm milk
- 1 egg at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons of oil (I use corn oil. Sometimes I use pure butter.)
- 1 tablespoon of oats, optional (for decoration - by sprinkling on top of the dough just before baking)
The method:
- Grease and line a loaf pan 8 inch x 4 inch x 4 inch. Set aside.
- Put the flours, oat, cereal, sugar, yeast and salt into the mixing bowl.
- Pour the warm milk into the bowl.
- Break the egg into it.
- Add in the oil if you are using oil. However, if you are using butter, it should be added at a later stage of kneading process after the dough has formed into a ball.
- Start kneading the ingredients into a smooth dough. This will take about 20 minutes or slightly more by machine. (It does not matter if you do not have a machine. You may do it manually.)
- When the dough has formed into a ball, add the butter (for those using butter).
- Grease a bowl with oil.
- Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and put it into the greased bowl. Cover the bowl with a cling wrap. Cover with a towel
- Leave the dough to proof until it doubles in size.
- Once it has doubled in size, remove the dough from the bowl onto a slightly floured table-top.
- Knead it manually for about 5-10 minutes.
- Then form it into a oval shape to fit the loaf pan. (You may also shape them into buns. Weigh the dough and divide it according to the number of buns that you wish to have. I usually divide my dough into 9 parts to obtain 9 buns.)
- Cover the loaf pan with a cling wrap.
- Let the dough double in size.
- Pre-heat oven to 175 degree Celsius.
- Once the dough has doubled in size, wet the top of the dough gently with some water. Sprinkle the oats on it.
- Bake the dough in the oven for about 30 minutes. (If you have made into buns, bake for about 20-25 minutes.)
- Once the bread is baked, remove the pan from the oven.
- Remove the bread immediately from the pan and let it cool down on a metal rack. (For buns, let them cool down on the metal rack.)
- Slice the loaf only when it has completely cool down.
