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 ...

The weight of nuts, if there are too many, can affect the rise. With well developed, strong gluten in a white bread, you can get away with a lot and still get a good rise. With a less strong dough, I've managed up to about 20% of the weight of the flour in non-glutenous add ins, but none as heavy as whole nuts. Chopped would be better. For finely ground nuts, the texture of meal or flour, again, about 20% of the weight of the flour works fine. More than that might be possible, if you want to experiment. However you do it, don't substitute for any of the flour. Just add.

Went back and tried to find the recipe above, and evidently, it has been deleted. This is the earliest recipe from KA I could find: KA 1948 Oct 12, 200907:19 PM re: ruth arcone I, too, was remembering enjoying VandeKamps Date Nut Bread and found a recipe that I tried; I was thrilled with how it tasted like the one I remember. Especially when I spread it with cream cheese! Yum! 3/4 cup boiling water 1 1/2 cup chopped dates (fresh) 1 T. butter 1/4 cup dark brown sugar 1/4 cup dark molasses 2 large eggs 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 cup whole wheat flour 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1/4 tsp. baking soda 1/4 tsp. salt 1 cup chopped walnuts Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl, pour water over the dates and butter. Stir and let the mixture sit until lukewarm Puree 1/3 of the mixture in a food processor or blender to make a paste, then stir it back into the date mixture. Add the brown sugar, molasses and eggs. Stir until everything is thoroughly combined. In a separate large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt Make a well in the center and pour in the date mixture. Mix until all the ingredients are combined. Pour the batter into a greased 9x5" loaf pan. Bake for 50 minutes; loaf is done when the top has risen and a cake tester inserted in the center will have some dates clinging to it but no batter. Remove the bread from the oven and cool it on a rack for 10 minutes before turning it out of the pan to finish cooling. Found this on cdkitchen Recipe ID: 40454 MSG URL: http://www.recipelink.com/msgid/1429447 I know sometimes on Chowhound recipes do get deleted.

Thanks again, folks. Sleevendog, I love the looks of the breads and crackers you make. And I am a big fan of ”kits” like those you make for your dad. I was aiming for something jam-packed with seeds and whole grain, but edible for a ”toasted” breakfast. I’ve been eating that Trader Joe’s bread that is think and packed with pumpkin seeds. I love almost all breads and crackers, but from what I’ve read eating things that have lots of un-processed nuts, seeds, grains and chunks is healthful — gives soluble and insoluble fiber and doesn’t give a jolt of easy carb-sugar (as, say white bread or store shelf whole wheat does. I used to make my own ”lots-of- seeds” crackers but don’t fel I have the time now. I sort of made up the recipe from seeing how various other recipes worked. I rolled the dough out in sheetsn with my Atlas pasta roller. I put holes into the dough with a new, washed, knob-bristled hair brush ;) Now, I know that one can buy docking rollers. Ha. They came out pretty well and tasted far better than store crackers. I have two (2) bags of 25 Lbs. of while AP flour I have to use or donate. I still have the chia seeds. Maybe I will vacuum seal them and return them to the freezer until I can use them. With the super dried bread, grain,seed experiment, I’ve been adding it to a mix for my opossums — lots of water of low broth, powdered milk, fish skin, chick bones or gizzards, old yogurt or cottage cheese or soured milk. If I had been making whole grain and seedy breads, I could have probably just incorporated some of that into the mix. But I have too many other things to do before cold weather.