July 22nd
2008
Do you bake bread? No? Why not? Perhaps intimidated by the whole yeast thing? Too complicated? Takes too much time? Then I have the perfect recipe for you: A lovely sweet muesli bread, another definite keeper from fellow food blogger Petra.
I streamlined the recipe's procedure a little bit, because the last time I prepared this tasty bread, I was running out of time. Nevertheless it tasted deee-li-cious. The bread has been baked in our oven four times now: The first time it was pure curiosity, the second time it made a great gift for a house-warming party, the third time pimped our Sunday breakfast table and the last time I used it to feed the camera team on a day-long shooting. The feedback? Everybody loved it. Try for yourself, either with a mild goat cheese or butter and honey. What else can I say but: Thank you, Petra!
Add the 5-grain rolled cereal mix, the milk, 130 g water and honey to the bowl of your food processor, stir and let soak for about 30 minutes.
Coarsely chop the dried apricots, then mix with the cranberries, the hazelnuts and the pistachios.
Dissolve the yeast in 50 g water, then add to the soaked grains, together with the flour. Knead slowly for 2 or 3 minutes, then sprinkle over the salt and knead again until the dough comes off the sides of the bowl cleanly.
Spread the dough on a floured surface like a rectangle, sprinkle over the fruits and nuts, then fold the dough like a letter. Knead until fruits and nuts are evenly worked in. Form a ball and put in a slightly oiled bowl, where the dough should double its volume in about one hour (covered with cloth in a warm and draft free spot).
Divide into two equally sized pieces and form to nice little longish breads, taking care that the surface stays as intact as possible. Brush with the beat egg and sprinkle with either rolled oats or chopped nuts. Cover with foil and let rest one last time for about 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 220°C (430°F) with either a backing stone or a baking sheet on middle level.
Cover the hot baking stone or sheet with parchment paper and place the breads on it. Spray some water on the oven walls to create steam (enhances the crust) and quickly close the oven door again. Discard the parchment paper after 20 minutes and bake 5 to 10 more minutes (cover with aluminium foil, if the bread or the nuts get too dark too quickly).
Take out of the oven and let cool on a wire rack.
Muesli bread
Recipe source: Petra Holzapfel, adapted
Prep time: about 20 minutes, rising: 1,5 hours, baking: 25-30min.
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Ingredients (yield: two small breads):
130 g water
150 g milk
100 g 5-grain rolled cereal mix
15 g honey
50 g hazelnuts
75 g dried apricots
25 g shelled pistachios
25 g dried cranberries
50 g water
15 g fresh yeast
375 g wheat flour (type 1050)
10 g salt
1 egg
topping: rolled oats or nuts
It looks delightful!!! Thankyou for sharing I will make it!!!
In addition to the incorporation of nuts and dried fruit, I love that I don't need to use my bread machine.
Definitely going to try out this recipe - Thanks!
Your bread looks so colourful! After reading so much about this bread, I'll finally have to bake it! Cranberries and pistachios make the bread even more colourful than the "normal" dried fruit.
Great looking bread! Thanks for the recipe. I made a Greek Easter bread recently and was looking to try something a little "fruitier" as a follow-up. I think I found it. :-)
Oh, this buttered and honeyed slice of bread is driving me positively insane!! And what a colour! Love it!
Great pictures! I never considered myself a bread baker, but now all I want to do is bake this bread. Looks so tasty!
Ich habe dieses wunderbare Brot von Petra auch schon nachgebacken - habe von der Hälfte des Teiges Brötchen gemacht, die ebenfalls wunderbar schmecken (zu sehen hier: http://deichrunner.typepad.com/mein_weblog/2008/06/nachgebacken-ms.html
What is 5 grain rolled cereal mix? Can I use any muesli instead?
i love the colors!
Great recipe, thank you
What a wonderful bread !!! I live in France . Could you tell me if the 5-grain rolled cereal mix is jusy a mix with flour and 5 grain or if it is another thing ?
Thank you
I have often baked bread, but I never had the idea to bake a museli bread. A good idea - again!!!
What a wonderful bread for breakfast!
This looks wonderful. The apricots and cranberries make it look like its studded with jewels.
Gorgeous, seriously beautiful jewelled bread. I eat muesli bread often and yet strangely I have never thought to make it myself. Considering that I have no fear of yeast I have no excuses...
I'm very happy you liked the bread :-)
I loved the idea of spraying water on the oven walls - so easy for the home cook to do! Thank you for this beautiful and healthy recipe!
We do bake bread and are now experimenting with rice flour based breads.
Your inspiring recipe is certainly a sure hit and I especially love your mild goat cheese/honey spread recommendation. I just love dried fruit in bread, it's almost like a dessert bread for me. Thank you to you and Petra for a great recipe.
[...] Muesli Bread ~ delicious days [...]
greer, Anne,
a 5 grain-rolled-cereal-mix is basically a mix of different cereal ingredients like rolled oats, barley, rye, wheat, spelt, millet or others. If you have problems finding it, I'd substitute plain rolled oats for example.
Miam miam.. this looks absolutely my types of bread!!
I like dried fruits!
so beautiful! It reminds me of tutti frutti ice-cream, just better for you!
I bet that would make great french toast! Looks really yummy!
That bread looks wayy to pretty to eat, but I'm sure I would eat it up in no time.
That bread looks so delicious and wholesome...perfect for breakfast with some honey and a mug of coffee. Thanks for the recipe!
delicious! just looking at it has make me crazy, amazing! hahha
Holy gorgeous! I was sold on the first picture, but then I think you went ahead and put butter and honey on it. Swoon!
Hi :)
Just a short note to let you know that you have been nominated to August edition of Inspiring Food Photography Poll:
http://www.coffeeandvanilla.com/?p=2838
Have a nice day, Margot
its mouth-watering, yummy =)
what camera that was used for the photos? i just pick up this hobbies about a year ago and was fascinated with the photo posted on your blog.........
I loved this recipe. in fact i love all the bread recipes that i see around here. Your brioche recipe is my favourite. hope this comment gets published this time. tried it before a few times.; o )- my comment has failed yet again so i have decided to send this message.I had been away from the blosphere - english language, for a while. but have always been a fan of delicious days.
This bread looks gorgeous! I can only imagine how scrumptious, too...
What a lovely bread!
Beautiful bread, I love all the colors and varying textures. Thank you for sharing!
And btw, I am so excited to hear you have a book coming out!!
Hi, first time vsiting you blog, and I´m just so happy I found it, suddenly my mod is much better because of the bright and lovely blog:-
Hugs from Gunilla in Singapore
I have not tried to bake a bread before. I will definately try it. It looks easy! Hope I can make it a nice one. Thanks for sharing!
Perfect - I'll be serving this to my hungry camera crew who just want to eat naughty white bread.
very nice job. Good recipe. I'd try to bake this stuff. Thanks!
http://www.foodista.com
Delicious! I need those for my breakfast pause ;)
I would be glad if you check our page and let me know what you thing about it
I made this a couple of weeks ago- Dave rode a 3 day bike tour (157 miles total), and he had this every morning before riding...with, nutella, big surprise. POWER BREAD! I couldn't find a 5 grain cereal, but instead used a 7 grain. Why not? And used only whole wheat flour, which I think is what you meant by "wheat flour". Then of course, I tried to stuff in more dried fruits and nuts than you said- so that was hilarious, kneading it out and watching nuts and fruits fly! It turned out to be very dense (yours looks a bit lighter), and I can't decide if it was the 7 grains, the lack of availability of fresh yeast, or the fact that I didn't adjust for high altitude. (hello? how did I forget this one?). But either way, it was DELISH, and a fantastic recipe, and will be made again, with a few more and a few less modifications next time ;-).
It looks like the tastier version of fruit cake! Looks simple enough to make at least.
I just realized, this may be harder to make than I thought, I work at a hotel in Prague and cranberries are pretty hard to come by in this city.
this is stunning. thank you for sharing it (and thanks to petra too!). i don't know how to bake bread, but if you say it's easy.. i just might give it a try. courage..courage. tc! God bless!
Oh, ohoh, this is just wonderful bread!!!
I didn't use quite as much yeast (I had fresh yeast cakes and usually use 50 g for 2 loaves of bread - so I used 25 for this and they came out great) or quite as much salt. I'm eating some at my desk now with marscapone and honey... Mmmmm!
Wow that bread looks good! I never really wanted to bake bread until now. That looks scrumptious! ~Y