Multigrain tin loaf: wheat and graham with sunflower, linseed and pumpkin seeds
A homemade seeded loaf that looks like it came from a good bakery and is made with yeast in one afternoon: bread flour with graham, a hundred grams of seeds soaked in water first, honey and oil for softness. Soaking the seeds is the whole secret: dry, they would pull water out of the dough and the loaf would be dense; soaked, they stay soft and the bread keeps fresh for four days.
Your own work in that: 25 min.
- Seeds soaking 60 min
- Kneading 15 min
- Rising 50 min
- Shaping 10 min
- Rising in the tin 40 min
- Baking 40 min
- Cooling 60 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneSoak the seeds
Cover the seeds with 100 ml water and leave an hour (or overnight). They absorb almost all the water and soften. Don't pour off what remains: it goes into the dough.
Ingredients: 100 g seed mix: sunflower, linseed, pumpkin · 100 ml water
TipDry seeds in dough act like a sponge: they take the water, the loaf comes out dry and crumbles when sliced. An hour of soaking is enough to prevent that.
An hour in water, the seeds swellKnead the dough and work in the seeds
Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water with the honey. Pour it and the oil into both flours with the salt and knead 8 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Add the soaked seeds with their remaining water and knead another 2 minutes, just until evenly distributed.
Ingredients: 350 g strong bread flour · 150 g graham (coarse wholemeal) flour · 320 ml water · 15 g fresh yeast · 1 tbsp honey · 2 tbsp oil · 1½ tsp salt · 10 g butter
TipSeeds go in last: added at the start they cut the gluten network during kneading and the loaf rises less.
Seeds only into the finished doughFirst rise
Shape the dough into a ball, cover and leave somewhere warm 50 minutes, until doubled. Graham with its bran rises more slowly than white flour: give it time if the kitchen is cool.
Doubled, a dome under the clothShape and tin
Knock back, flatten into a rectangle as wide as the tin and roll up tightly from the short side into a log. Set seam down in the buttered tin. Brush the top with water, sprinkle with 2 tbsp seeds and press lightly with your palm so they stick.
A tight log, seam down, seeds on topSecond rise
Cover and leave 40 minutes, until the dough reaches the rim of the tin. Meanwhile heat the oven to 200 °C with an empty tray on the bottom shelf.
Bake with steam
Put the loaf in, pour a cup of boiling water onto the bottom tray, close the door. Bake 40 minutes, until the crust is deep golden and the loaf, turned out and tapped underneath, sounds hollow. If the seeds on top darken too fast, cover with foil after 25 minutes.
Steam below, 40 minutes at 200 °CCool before slicing
Turn out and cool on a rack an hour. Warm graham bread cuts into gummy slices; cold, into even ones. Keeps 4 days in a cloth; sliced, it freezes perfectly.
An hour on the rack, then slices
Before you start
Other seeds
Sesame, rolled oats, pumpkin seeds alone or with walnuts: always 100 g and always soaked. Skip hard grains (soy, corn).
More wholemeal
Half and half: 250 g bread flour and 250 g graham, plus 20 ml more water. Darker, heavier, more filling.
The loaf splits at the side
Second rise too short, or too little steam. Wait until the dough reaches the rim, and don't skimp on the boiling water in the tray.
