Eight-Grain Honey Sunflower Seed Bread

I had postponed making this bread because I never had eight-grain flour. However, this weekend I realized I had seven-grain cereal and enough random flours that it was close enough to eight. So, I ground the last of the seven-grain cereal into flour and proceeded with the bread.


My husband said this has been one of his favorite breads in a while, nice dense chewy texture.


Eight-Grain Honey Sunflower Seed Bread
2 tsp. yeast
1 1/3 cups water
3 Tbsp. canola oil
1/3 cup honey
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups eight-grain flour
3 cups bread flour

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

Heat the water until warm, between 105ºF and 115ºF. Pour into warmed mixing bowl, and add yeast, oil, honey, salt, eight-grain flour and half the bread flour. Let stand 5 minutes.

Beat well. Cover, and let stand 15 minutes.

Add sunflower seeds and remaining bread flour. (Note: I had to add additional flour to get the dough to the proper texture.) Knead the dough until soft and springy but soft to the touch. Remove the dough hook, cover the bowl and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

Turn dough onto lightly greased or floured surface, and punch dough down. Shape dough into a loaf, and place in a greased 9 x 5 bread pan. Cover and let rise until doubled, about one hour.

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Glaze with egg wash and sprinkle with sunflower seeds. Bake 25 to 35 minutes, until golden. Remove from bread pan, and cool on wire rack.