Quick and Easy 4-Grain Bread

New year, new recipe book... Having just come back from a 2-week vacation I wanted to make a quick bread so I don't have to go buy one. This recipe is really quick because it doesn't require fermentation, except for the sourdough. But since it's so little sourdough I had it anyways and didn't need to let it proof over night. The grain soaker also only needs to rest for 2-3 hours so there is no need to prepare that the night before either and the whole recipe can be made on a single day. I kept the original name of the recipe, although there are actually 5 kinds of grains used (just not in the dough). This makes 2 small breads.

 Sourdough

• 35g (1oz) all purpose wheat flower
• 35ml (1oz) water
• 7g (1/4 oz) wheat sourdough starter

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir until smooth. Cover and let proof at room temperature for 14-16 hours. I had the whole batch available so I just used 80g of sourdough. Of course you can also just use 80g of ready-made sourdough.

Soaker

• 50g (1 3/4oz) sunflower seeds
• 50g (1 3/4oz) pumpkin seeds
• 50g (1 3/4oz) flax seeds
• 50g (1 3/4oz) oat flakes
• 200ml (6 3/4oz) boiling water

Roast sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds in a pan without oil over medium heat until you smell the aroma. Transfer into a bowl together with flax seeds and oat flakes. Pour over boiling water, give it a good stir, cover and let rest for 2-3 hours (since most other breads I made require the grains to soak much longer I went for 3 hours).

Main Dough

• Sourdough
• 350g (12 1/4oz) all purpose wheat flour
• 250g (8 3/4oz) whole grain rye flour
• 2 Tbsp salt
• 300ml (10oz) water
• 3 tsp Active Dry Yeast, 1 1/2 tsp of sugar and 2 2/3oz of water, mixed and let stand for about 10 minutes (or 20g fresh yeast)
• sesame seeds to roll bread in

If you use fresh yeast, let it dissolve in the water first. Otherwise, just combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and knead with the dough hook for 4 minutes on low and another 4 minutes on medium speed.

Transfer the dough onto a floured surface, cover with a wet linen towel and let rest for 20 minutes. During resting period, fold the dough once or twice (I did it two times). To do that, just flatten it a little bit and fold from the edge towards the middle and press it down. Go around the dough doing that until it's round again and turn it over.

Divide the dough into 2 halfs and form oval breads. Brush the surface with water and roll the breads in sesame seeds. Place parchement paper on a baking sheet, transfer the breads onto it and cover with linen cloth again. Let rise for 25 minutes. Cut into the surface of the breads about 10 minutes into the resting period.

Preheat oven to 465°F (240°C).

Spray a little bit of water into the oven and place baking sheet on middle rack. The breads rise quite a bit in the oven so make sure you place them nicely separated. Bake for 35-40 minutes.

To check if the bread is done, knock on the bottom, it should sound a little hollow. Let cool on a cooling rack.

Original recipe by Bernd Armbrust, published by GU in the book "Brot".