This incredibly light and fluffy multigrain bread is the best of both worlds – light and fluffy bread, perfect for sandwiches or toast, but with the added goodness of whole grains and a crunchy, seedy topping.
Today I’m sharing my latest daily bread of choice. It’s a light and fluffy multigrain bread, filled and topped with lots of grains. It’s a “best of both worlds” bread, with a light and fluffy texture, combined with some whole grain goodness. And did I mention the lovely, crispy, toasted seed crust?
You’ll love the great flavour and texture of this bread, together with the added goodness of whole grains. It makes great sandwich bread and is lovely toasted, as well. It’s also a fast-riser, so you’ll be enjoying it in no time!
- Key Ingredients
- Video Tutorial
- How to make your own multigrain cereal mix
- Step by step photos
- Baker’s Notes
- Add-ins for your loaf
- Storing and Freezing this bread
- Variations: Multigrain Rolls, Buns or Freeform Loaf
- Overnight Refrigerator Rise Option
- Freezing Unbaked Dough
- Get the Recipe: Light and Fluffy Seeded Multigrain Bread
- More bread recipes you might also like …
- Save or share this recipe
Key Ingredients
Cereal Mix – This loaf uses multigrain cereal mix, which is a mix that is generally used to make a hot cereal when combined with hot water or milk. This kind of mix is the most efficient way to get a variety of whole grains together. Do note though, that these mixes are 100% whole grains, with no added sweeteners etc, so steer away from the commercial flavoured oatmeal mixes etc.
The most common is a “7-grain” cereal mix. If you are in Canada, Bulk Barn sells both a 7-grain (Hard red wheat, barley, rye, steel cut oats, brown flaxseed, millet, buckwheat) and a 12-grain (Cracked wheat, cracked rye, cracked triticale, oat flakes, millet, cracked oats, barley flakes, sunflower seeds, natural sesame seeds, buckwheat grits, brown flaxseeds, yellow flaxseeds) cereal mix. Either of those will work fine. Bob’s Red Mill also has a 7-grain mix.
If you can’t find any of those mixes, look for something like a porridge mix. Rogers makes a couple of Porridge mixes – Porridge Oats and Healthy Grains (oat flakes, oat bran, wheat bran and flaxseed) or Porridge Oats and Ancient Grains (Oat, rye, barley, spelt and khorasan flakes, oat bran, millet, flaxseed, quinoa flakes). Quaker makes a mix called Quaker Super Grains Hot Cereal, that is a mix of whole grain oats, flaxseed, and quinoa.
My best advice is to browse the hot cereal/oatmeal section at the grocery store or the natural foods section and see what you can find. If you really can’t find something, see below for a homemade multigrain cereal mix.
All Purpose Flour – for the lightest loaf, use all purpose flour. I prefer unbleached all purpose flour. You can also use bread flour, though you may need a little less than specified. If you want to add some whole wheat flour to the loaf, you can replace up to 1 cup of the all purpose flour with whole wheat flour, though your loaf will not be as light as fluffy as the original with this change.
Vegetable Oil – Using oil in yeast breads helps create the soft and light texture. It is also good for anyone wanting a vegan yeast bread. That said, you can certainly replace the oil with an equal amount of melted and cooled butter.
Video Tutorial
Watch as I make this light and fluffy multigrain bread.
How to make your own multigrain cereal mix
If you can’t find a pre-mixed multigrain cereal mix, you can mix up your own with a combination of any of the following whole grains:
Rolled oats, quick oats, steel cut oats, quinoa, flaxseed meal, flaxseed, sesame seeds, oat flakes, rye flakes, barley flakes, cracked wheat, wheat bran, oat bran, millet, buckwheat.
Step by step photos
Since this dough can start with any number of multigrain cereal mixes, it may absorb the water differently. You may find you have less water in the bowl than shown here after it sits for 20 minutes. That’s ok :)
Be sure your cereal mix has cooled to just lukewarm before adding the yeast or you could kill the yeast before you get started. Test with an instant read thermometer if you have one and make sure it’s about 105F. Otherwise, test with your finger. It should be lukewarm and not feel hot at all.
I like to add a couple of tablespoons of small seeds to my bread. Here I’ve added some poppy and sesame seeds, together with a little flaxseed meal. It’s totally optional though.
Thee secret to a light and fluffy loaf is to not add too much flour! In the photo above, you’ll see that the dough with the 4 cups of flour added is loose and wet. Yours may be a little less loose, depending on the cereal mix that you used, but it should be very moist at this point. That’s what we want. You may be tempted to add more flour, but resist the urge to add it at this stage.
Once we rest the dough for 15-minutes, the grains will continue to absorb the moisture in the dough and be a lot less loose. After that, simply remove to a floured work surface and add a bit more flour, as needed, if the dough is still a little sticky.
This bread is a FAST RISER! Don’t wander far and keep a good eye on it. This 1st rise shown here was only about 40 minutes. Be sure you just allow the dough to rise to doubled and no more.
The rise in the pan is just as quick as the 1st rise. You’ll find it will be risen and ready for the oven in 25-30 minutes (and maybe less). In a 9×5-inch pan, it should crest the pan by about 1 1/2-inches in the centre.
This bread tends to brown quickly, so be sure to cover the top loosely with a sheet of aluminum foil after about 18-20 minutes of baking, to keep the top from over-browning. Baking the loaf in the lower third of the oven (one rack position down from centre) helps to slow the browning a bit.
The early browning can also make the loaf look done before it is. A large 9×5-inch loaf like this will need a total of 40-45 minutes in the oven to bake through. An instant read thermometer is invaluable here to test the loaf for doneness. Bake until the internal temperature is 195-205F (I aim for about 200F).
Baker’s Notes
- As noted above, after you have added the 4 cups of flour, your dough may be quite loose and wet. The grains in the bread will hold a lot of moisture, so this isn’t a dough that will come together like a normal dough. Loose and wet is ok at this point. Once it rests for 15-minutes, it will become less loose and less wet. If needed, we can add a bit more flour on the bench, as needed. That said, depending on your grain mix, you dough may be less wet and loose and that’s ok, too. That just means you’ll need little more flour on the bench.
- While I love the seed topping on this bread, you can easily skip it if you prefer. Leave it plain or do the egg wash and use some rolled oats on top instead.
- This bread will be Vegan, if made with brown sugar (instead of honey) and using water on top instead of the egg wash.
- You can make this bread as one large 9×5 loaf, as two shorter, smaller 8×4 loaves. Note that baking time will be less for the 8×4 loaves. Refer to the Recipe Card below for some guidance there.
- If you go the big 9×5 loaf route, be warned that it does take time to bake through, but will look quite done before it actually is. I covered mine with foil after about 20 minutes and then baked pretty much a full 45 minutes. If you have an instant read thermometer, you can take out the guesswork. You’ll want your loaf to be at least 195F before you take it out. I aim for about 200F.
- Be careful with doubling this recipe. While it can be done, the dough is bulky and doubling may put too big a strain on a stand mixer.
Add-ins for your loaf
Additional add-ins are completely optional. They are just suggestions if you want to change up your basic loaf a bit. Feel free to leave out and just enjoy the basic multigrain bread. My favourite add-in is to add a couple of tablespoons of the small seed mix. It adds a little extra flavour and texture to the loaf. Other options are pepitas (pumpkin seeds), sunflower seeds, raisins, nuts, dried cranberries or other dried fruit. Be sure not to exceed the recommended amount, for best results
Storing and Freezing this bread
You can store this bread for several days at room temperature, stored in an airtight container.
This bread will also freeze well, tightly wrapped, for up to 3 months.
Variations: Multigrain Rolls, Buns or Freeform Loaf
If you like, you can use this dough to make multigrain rolls. Simply divide the dough into 8-16 even sized pieces, depending on the size of rolls or buns you want. Form the dough pieces into balls, rise and bake on a baking sheet. The baking time will be greatly reduced. Watch carefully and check often, as they will likely be ready in as little as 15-minutes, depending on the size.
Finally, you can make a free-form loaf from this dough. Simply shape into a boule (round) or oval and bake on a baking sheet or in something like a cast-iron skillet.
Overnight Refrigerator Rise Option
You can prepare the bread through to shaping and placing in the loaf pan, then immediately cover and refrigerate overnight or up to 12 hours. In the morning, simply remove from the fridge and allow to rise on the counter for 1 hour before baking.
Freezing Unbaked Dough
You can also freeze the shaped loaf right after placing it in the loaf pan (before the 2nd rise). I like to freeze in the loaf pan, then once solid, wrap the frozen dough log tightly and store only the dough in the freezer up to 3 months. When ready to bake, remove the frozen dough log, unwrap, place in a greased loaf pan, cover with plastic wrap and thaw at room temperature for 4-5 hours, or until thawed and risen. Bake as usual.
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Get the Recipe: Light and Fluffy Seeded Multigrain Bread
Ingredients
Basic Multigrain Bread Dough:
- 1/2 cup (113 ml) multi-grain cereal, such as 7, 10 or 12-grain cereal *see Note 1
- 2 cups (454 ml) boiling water
- 2 1/4 teaspoons (7 g) active dry or instant yeast, (not rapid or quick rise yeast)
- 4 cups (480 g) unbleached all-purpose flour , spooned and levelled *see Note 2
- 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) vegetable oil, or other neutral tasting cooking oil, or melted and cooled butter
- 1 Tablespoon (15 g) honey, or light or dark brown sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (9 g) fine sea salt
OPTIONAL Add-ins *See Note 3 below
- 1/3 cup raisins or dried cranberries
- 1/4 cup raw pumpkin or sunflower seeds, chopped
- 1/4 cup nuts (pecans, walnuts etc), chopped
- 2 Tablespoon mixed small seeds, poppy, sesame and/or flax seeds
Egg Wash:
- 1 large egg, mixed with 1 Tbsp water (or alternately, just water, for a vegan loaf, though seeds may not stick as well).
Topping Seed Mixture:
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) sesame seeds
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) flax seeds
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) poppy seeds
- Raw pumpkin and or sunflower seeds, optional
Instructions
- Place multigrain cereal in a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a kneading hook. Pour boiling water over, then let stand until mixture cools to between 105°F. and 115°F. for active dry yeast or to about 120F for Instant yeast, about 20 minutes. *Don't rush it. If your mixture is too hot, it may kill your yeast. A thermometer is handy here to make sure of the temperature before adding the yeast.
- Sprinkle yeast over cereal mixture. Add 1 cup flour, the oil, honey (or brown sugar) and salt and stir until smooth. Gradually mix in the remaining flour, incorporating and additional add-ins during the mixing. Once all the flour is added, you'll have a moist dough, that may also seem a bit loose. Resist the urge to add more flour at this point. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rest 15 minutes. The grains will absorb more of the moisture during the rest period.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead a few minutes, until smooth and elastic, adding more flour, as needed, if it's sticking to your hands or the work surface.
- Oil a large bowl or measuring cup. Add the dough to bowl, then flip over the ball of dough so the oiled side is up. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in warm spot until doubled in size. **Don't wander far. This bread is a quick riser and may double in as little as 35-40 minutes. It may take longer. The important thing is to make sure it rises only until doubled, no matter how long that is.
- Prepare the Seed Mixture by stirring together all the seeds in a small bowl. Set aside.
- When dough has doubled in size, remove to a work surface and gently deflate dough by pressing down the dough.
- Grease one 9x5-inch loaf pan or two 8x4-inch loaf pans. Sprinkle a bit of the seed mixture into the pan (or divide between two pans), if you like. For 8x4-inch loaves, divide the dough into two equal sized pieces. For 9x5-inch loaf, leave as one piece. Roll the dough out into a rectangle about 10 inches wide and 18-inches long. for a 9x5 loaf, or 9x16-inch rectangles each of the two 8x4 loaves. Roll up jelly rolls style, starting with the short side, then pinch seams together. Place rolls seam side down into prepared loaf pan(s).
- Cover the loaves with a clean kitchen towel or greased/sprayed plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, about 25- 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 425F. (regular bake/non convection), with rack positioned just below centre (a little lower rack position, one down from centre, will help to keep the top of the bread from browning as quickly).
- Before baking, brush top of loaves with the egg wash and sprinkle the top with remaining seed mixture.
- Bake in preheated 425F oven for 18-20 minutes, then cover the top loosely with a sheet of aluminum foil to prevent over-browning. Bake a further 20-25 minutes for a 9x5 loaf or 10-15 minutes for 8x4 loaves, or until golden and crusty and have an internal temperature of 195-205F when tested with an instant read thermometer. *Bread will look done, even when it isn't cooked through. The large 9x5 loaf will need the full 40-45 minutes in the oven to be cooked through.
- Remove from oven. Run a knife around the edges of the pan and immediately remove to a cooling rack to cool. Allow to cool completely (or almost completely) before slicing, to avoid a gummy bread.
- Store bread well wrapped at room temperature for a couple of days, or freeze for longer storage. This bread will freeze well up to 2-3 months or more.
Notes
- Refer to the Ingredient Notes above this Recipe Card for some guidance and suggestions for different multigrain cereal blends you can use here, as well as how to make your own multigrain mix.
- You can replace up to 1 cup of the unbleached all purpose flour with whole wheat flour, if you like, though the resulting bread will not be as light as it would be with all purpose flour. I don't recommend adding more than 1 cup of whole wheat flour, as it will alter the hydration of the dough significantly.
- The Optional add-ins are things you can add in to the dough - one, all or none of them, if you like, to change up the bread a bit. That said, don't exceed about 1/2 cup of total add-ins.
- If you find the bread gets too dark for your liking, even after tenting it with foil for the last part of baking, try baking it at 400F instead and baking it a little longer.
More bread recipes you might also like …
Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
I was just curious. Could this bread be made into rolls rather than a loaf? If so, how would one go about doing that? Also, can the bread be made ahead of time (like the day before)?
Hi Jessica! Yes, this could easily be made into rolls. After the first rise, divide the dough into 1 1/2-2 inch balls and place into a baking pan that will hold them all just barely touching each other. Let rise and then bake. Baking time will be considerable less. Start checking at 18-20 minutes. And yes, you can make the day before. Just wrap well once cooled.
I just made this bread and I am in love! It turned out perfectly still warm with some butter is absolute heaven, I don’t know I feel it will last until tomorrow’s sandwich, thank you for this recipe!
So glad to hear, Emma! Thanks :)
Wondering if the recipe can be doubled?
Hi Kelly, I think you could easily double the recipe. The only thing I’d watch is that it will be a lot of heavy dough, so might push the limits of a stand mixer, if that’s what you use to mix the dough. If so, I would stop it early and finish kneading by hand. Otherwise, should be fine :) Enjoy!
Just perfect ! Loved the flavour and texture .
Wanted to make it as soon as I saw the recipe. Did not have the cereal mix , so used mix flours of millets. Then added an egg just before adding in the flour (was worried if the millet flour would make the bread heavy) . Flour I used half all purpose and half whole wheat.
Can’t wait to find the cereal mix and try the exact recipe . Very happy with current result too !!
Glad to hear it came out nicely for you! One thought about adding egg. My experience is that enriched breads (breads with eggs), tend to be heavier and not to stay fresh as long. Another option instead of the egg would be to increase the oil by a Tbsp. Just an idea if you make this again.
I can’t get the 7 grain cereal mix, could I use a suitable muesli mix instead? I desperately need to find a recipe to get me light fluffy bread, all my attempts so far are resulting in a too heavy bread.
Hi Dave, You might want to look at ordering online. Amazon or directly from Bob’s Red Mill would be quick and easy.
Hi! Can I use bread flour instead of all purpose flour?
Also instead of substituting the all purpose flour with whole flour entirely, could I do half and half?
Hi Sneha, yes, you can definitely use bread flour. As for the whole wheat, yes, half and half would be the most whole wheat I would add to keep some lightness to the loaf. Enjoy!
Hi Jennifer,
Oh my god! Thank you! I still have hope! I will try this and give you an update! Thanks so much!
Regards,
Anne
Hi Jennifer,
Thank you for your prompt reply.
I’m sorry for the trouble.
Anyway, I found one “Organic Oats Grain&seed” on the internet. I am not sure if I can use this haha. Well, if not I will try other bread recipes from your website.
Thanks again.
Anne
Hi Anne and no trouble at all! The organic oats, grain and seed sounds perfect. I think that will do nicely for this bread :)
Hi Jennifer,
I would like to know the substitute for multi-grain cereal (7-grain cereal)? I live in Australia, can I use weetbix instead?
Thanks.
Anne
Hi Anne, Had to google weetbix and now that I have, I would say no. What you want is a loose grain mix – granola-like, but unsweetened/toasted. Do you have a hot cereal mix with loose grains? Something like that would be a better option.
Hi,
I made Multigrain Sandwich Bread from another popular cookbook but bread was very heavy. I am going to make yours this weekend but want to be sure I follow your recipe exact. In step 2, in my mixer with dough hook, how long do I mix the bread for.
Thank you for the amazing site
Jerry
Hi Jerry and no worries :) In Step 2, you will want to knead with the hook and add flour until you have a smooth dough. For me, that’s usually a 5 minute process of kneading, adding a bit more flour, kneading some more. It’s more important that the dough be smooth (not dry/not sticky), than how long that actually takes. I watch for the dough ball to start to clean the bowl and wrap itself around the dough hook. When you get there, you’re pretty close to done. Enjoy the bread and let me know how you make out!
Made this yesterday to rave reviews from my husband. I bake lots of bread/buns and have been tinkering with sourdough. He has declared this recipe “perfect bread” and suggested I give up sourdough…;) I think I’ve found a keeper! Only change was that I used Red River Cereal, (Canadian classic!) instead of 7 grain cereal. Thanks for this!
So glad to hear! You know, I’ve never tried Red River Cereal, though I remember my Mom eating it all the time. I’m going to check that out. Thanks!
Thank you! I began teaching myself to cook 3yo as a catharsis for depression. Bread has always eluded me and eventually gave up. Roommate brought home bags of bulk seed/grains and I casually looked online. Your recipe came up first, thought I’d try bread again. Followed the recipe about 90% – ended up with a full cup mix of quinoa (variety), flax, stone cut oats, barley, chia seeds, bulgur, farro, sunflower seed, and walnuts. Followed the recipe to the letter otherwise. Your comment to take things slow resonated. After baking, let cool, and still felt squishy and thought, yay, undercooked again. Nope. This is the first time I have made fluffy bread.. that everything worked. It was amazing. I got a full 10″ loaf and two large 18″ baguettes from this recipe. My roommate was astonished. You, this site, this recipe are a find! Thank you so much!!!!
So glad to hear! I love spreading the bread making love :) Thanks!
Very easy and super delicious bread. I used Bob’s Red Mill 10 grain hot cereal. That’s the closest that I could find in Quebec. I will be checking out more of your recipes soon. I see you have a cheese bread recipe.
So glad you enjoyed it, Linda! And yes, I highly recommend the cheese bread, too :)
What do you think of using oatmeal instead of the 7-grain/12-grain mixture? Just curious since I have oatmeal on hand but not the grain mixes. Thanks!
You could definitely use oatmeal instead of the 7-grain. I suspect you’d need more liquid, as the oatmeal would absorb more than the grain, but other than that, should work :)
This is the first time I have ever left a review for a recipe that I have used online. I just wanted to let you know how absolutely delicious this bread really is. It was very easy and I love the fact that the Ad-ins leave you to be creative. I used sunflower seeds in sun-dried tomatoes. The bread turned out PERFECT! Thank you for sharing
Thanks so much, Michelle and thanks especially for commenting :) And I agree, I love the freedom to just throw in stuff depending on what I’m feeling would be good at the time. No loaf ever exactly the same, but always tasty :)
I made this in two loaves, Jennifer. It worked perfectly, but I wonder – rather than rolling the dough, can it just be formed, then plopped into the loaf pans? I found rolling the dough did not totally fill out my loaf pans. Thanks for a terrific recipe!
Cheers!
Hi Candace and thanks! Yes, you could definitely form it in to an oval-ish shape and plop it in. Or just go the free-form route and bake it on a baking sheet instead. You’ll probably want to shape it a bit though, as getting some surface tension from shaping helps to get a good rise on your bread. So basically, that just means forming a round or oval by shaping, then tucking the sides underneath so the top of the bread is a little taut.