I use 1/2 cup of digestive bran and brown flour and sometimes I add 11/2 cups of All-Bran Flakes cereal or I use 3 Weetbix. Buy some whole grain seeds of your choice from the health store and crush them roughly and add to your bread dough. Experiment a little to get what works for your family. Good Luck!

I'm partial to adding multi-grain mixtures (5-grain, 7-grain, 11-grain, etc.) for some added fiber and "tooth" (a bit of crunch). These mixtures look like chopped whole grain and are designed to be cooked into breakfast cereal. I mill my own mixtures from a variety of grains/seeds/beans, but Bob's Red Mill has these mixes in several varieties and mixtures to choose from. Add about 1/2-3/4 cup per 1-1/2- to 2-pound loaf. I add it dry towards the end of the kneading time. If you add it too soon the sharp edges of this cereal mix will cut the long gluten strands and you'll find you have a short, squatty loaf of bread.

I also fortify breads with sprouted grain (wheat, spelt, kamut, rye, barley, etc.). I always have wheat sprouting in the kitchen. Sprouts will make the bread a little more chewy. I have a recipe I like to use that has 2-cups of sprouted wheat in it. Chop it with a knife into smaller bits before adding it to your recipe. I sprout all kinds of grains/seeds/beans and add them to breads.

Flakes of all kinds - oat, wheat, spelt, rye, kamut, triticale, barley.... I can flake most grains (other than corn) on my flaker mill and add it to the recipe. These flakes are not as tender as store-bought oatmeal because they are not steam processed.

Whole amaranth seeds is a great add-in, especially for quick breads. The little golden seeds are power-packed with nutrition and protein and look like golden poppy seeds in your bread. Two tablespoons of toasted or untoasted whole amaranth per loaf. I also mill amaranth into flour and make Amaranth Seed Bread, a Beth Hensperger recipe. I harvested enough amaranth from 12 plants to last me a few years, so I found new ways to use it besides cooked cereal.

A coarse-grind of yellow cornmeal adds lovely yellow flecks to bread. Bob's Red Mill will have a coarse grind. Regular cornmeal tends to get lost. This is another grain I mill myself.

I make recipes that use a cup of buckwheat groats and another that uses a cup of semolina (the high-protein coarse-grind flour used for making pasta - I mill a whole grain version with durum wheat).

You can add sunflower seeds, whole millet, oatmeal, and whole raw quinoa. Have some leftover wild rice? You can add 1/2 a c. to bread. Wild rice and sunflower seeds is a good combination in bread, as is buckwheat and wild rice.

You can find recipes that include Malt-O Meal, Farina, Cream of Wheat, Coco Wheat, etc. "Brand Name" cookbooks have recipes with all kinds of commercial cereal.

Other options - cracked wheat, bulgur, steel-cut oats.

I add chia seeds mixed in water (chia seed gel or "goop") to nearly all loaves of bread. What a nutritional power-house, high in fiber, and an ingredient that will help keep bread from going stale as quick.

Flaxseed meal is automatically added to all baked goods.

I have 28 grains/seeds/beans in storage and any and all can be added to bread in a number of forms.

-Grainlady ...

This recipe of Struan Bread (Harvest Bread) from Brother Juniper is one of my favorites. I try to keep cooked brown rice in the freezer just for this recipe. I do not use the poppy seeds on top as I need to avoid seeds and nuts.

Struan Bread

Makes 1 large loaf or 2 small loaves

Soaker
3 tablespoons polenta
3 tablespoons rolled oats
2 tablespoons wheat bran
1/4 cup water

Dough
3 cups unbleached bread flour
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon instant yeast
3 tablespoons cooked brown rice
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup water

topping
1 tablespoon poppy seeds

Mix together the ingredients for the soaker. Cover and allow to soak for at least half an hour or as long as overnight.

In a larger bowl, combine the dry ingredients, then stir in wet ingredients and soaker. Add more flour or water until the dough can be formed into a ball that is tacky but not sticky. Place the ball of dough on a clean work surface and knead it for 10 to 12 minutes, then return it to the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the dough to ferment until doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes.

Remove the dough from the bowl, degas it gently, and split it for two loaves or shape it as is for one. Place the loaves in greased bread pans, spritz or sprinkle water on top, and sprinkle a handful of poppy seeds on top.

Cover the pans loosely with plastic and allow the loaves to rise until doubled in size again, approximately 90 minutes.

Bake these loaves at 350 for 40 to 60 minutes, until the internal temperature is around 190 degrees. When ready the loaves will be quite brown on top and will make a hollow thud when tapped on the bottom.

Cool on a wire rack until completely cooled. Freezes well.

Teresa

Thank you for all the ideas. Grainlady, in my younger days I would have loved to have you as a guide for all the whole cooking and baking you do, but I just don't do much cooking anymore. I REALLY need to put my bread machine back in the cabinet and forget about it again since it's what put so much weight on SO and myself when I first got it years ago. Or better yet I could take it back to my daughter's house and let her use it. With the holidays being over we don't use much bread other than an occasional loaf, but I LOVE baking and experimenting with the breads. I guess I'll either give it away or hide that machine again....LOL.

bryansda -

I don't do a lot of cooking anymore either ;-). Whole foods - nature's original "fast" food - works for me.

I'm very careful about carbs and we eat foods primarily from the lower half of the glycemic index of foods, and avoid processed food.

A lot of my baked goods are made with coconut flour and almond flour these days, which both are carb friendly. We only eat 4-servings of grains/breads a day, and they are all whole grains.

I make small loaves of bread and cut the slices into thin 1/2-ounce slices, so two slices are equal to one serving. We usually eat one 1-pound loaf of bread every 7-10-days, even with hubby taking sandwiches for his lunch twice a week.

-Grainlady

How interesting! I never thought of putting cereal or beans in bread. Are there general guidelines for amount and method?

jessicavanderhoff -

Unfortunately, I didn't locate a handy-dandy chart that would be helpful with add-ins. I'll keep looking...

Sometimes it's safer to look for a recipe that includes the particular add-in/s you want to use (i.e. Shredded Wheat Bread), especially if you aren't familiar with bread science and how certain things act or react in breads.

-Too much cooked oatmeal, dry oats, or oat flour and you'll be guaranteed a sticky, heavy loaf of bread and insufficient rise. 15-20% of the total ingredients

-Cinnamon rolls are made by adding cinnamon/sugar on top the rolled out dough, rather than IN the dough. The reason... While small amounts of many spices can actually enhance the dough, too much will fight yeast and inhibit yeast action. Too much sugar in the dough will also inhibit yeast action. When using cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and allspice in yeast dough, limit the amounts to less than 1/4-teaspoon per cup of flour - as a general rule of thumb.

-Beans/bean flour - Beans and bean flour add fiber and protein, and when combined with wheat flour = a complete protein. You can substitute up to 25% of the wheat flour in a recipe with bean flour in both yeast breads and quick breads (15-20% is probably a better amount). You may need to add some vital wheat gluten to compensate for the lost gluten.

Use small lima beans or small white beans for bean flour. They impart the least amount of bean flavor.

Mashed beans can be used as a fat substitute. I have an old recipe that my mother used that calls for a can of Pork 'n Beans in a yeast bread. Who thinks this stuff up??? (LOL)

-Cheese, olives, sauerkraut, all have a lot of sodium in them and they can affect the yeast, just as adding too much salt would. So add these things sparingly and towards the end of the kneading.

-Dry mustard, like too much salt, inhibits yeast growth.

-I added information in my earlier post for dry multi-grain cereal blends. Anything that is hard/dry/sharp needs to be added towards the end of the kneading so the sharp edges of the add-in ingredient don't cut the gluten strands.

-Grainlady

why have they stopped making small loaves of bread? old people/young couples are throwing out molded bread because it can not be used soon enough. Please cotact some one to start making it again!!

elinor tincher -

Why blame the manufacturer's? Look to yourself.

-Make your own bread to the size you need/want.

-Freeze bread for later use if you can't use it all.

-Get creative using foods that would otherwise go to waste.

I never purchase breads or baked goods. I can make them healthier and cheaper than what is found commercially; and I can make the loaves to the size we like - which is usually a 1# loaf. Which is nice because I can make a recipe that yields 2# of dough and make 2 loaves of bread (freeze one), or 1 loaf and 6 hamburger buns, OR 6 sticky pecan rolls or cinnamon rolls, OR an 8-inch pan of dinner rolls, OR 6 hot dog buns. The freezer is stocked with all kinds of homemade breads.

I never throw bread away - not even the heels or the crumbs in the bag. With a nice collection of recipes I've collected over the years, I use both fresh and dried bread crumbs to make waffles, pancakes, brownies, muffins, cookies, etc.... Not to mention making bread pudding, croutons, or making up extra slices into French Toast destined for the freezer to use later.

Wasted food is the most expensive food we purchase!

-Grainlady

I agree, none of my bread goes to waste, it all becomes bread crumbs which go in the freezer for meatballs or toppings for casseroles, whatever I need. That's whatever is left over after I make that french toast/bread pudding/stuffing/croutons.

I've also found taht the different flavors of bread crumbs add a nice touch to some things like meatloaf.

I also bake all my own bread, but even if I didn't, I'd be making crumbs out of the stale stuff, or cutting it into cubes for croutons or stuffing instead of throwing it away.

Which reminds me, I need to clean my pantry.

Annie