What is Multi-Grain Bread?

So what is Multi-grain bread. This is a type of bread that is made with more than one grain as its main ingredient. The grains themselves can be whole or unprocessed. Some common grains used include barley, wheat, flax, millet, or oats.

As you might imagine this type of bread is made from multi grain flour which is typically is made with five or more grains, with typical recipes being 7-Grain and 9-Grain bread. Multi-grain breads are otherwise similar to most yeasted types of bread and are made with salt, yeast, water, and occasionally sugar.

Multi-grain bread types are frequently considered more healthful than their white-flour cousins. They can contain up to four times the fiber of white bread and may contain more vitamins and nutrients depending on what seeds and grains are in the recipe.

The popularity of multi-grain bread has grown in the United States. It is frequently made into breakfast toast, sandwiches, and as a side to savory dishes. It is a versatile bread that tastes great served alone, or with jam, butter, or other condiments.

The History of Multigrain Bread

Bread has been found at prehistoric sites dating back as far as 30,000 years ago. The prehistoric people were originally hunter-gatherers who scavenged and collected their food while travelling.

Because of this, the prehistoric bread was more likely than not made of many different kinds of grains collected by the prehistoric humans on their travels. Single-grain bread did not proliferate in the diets of humans until agricultural cultures developed 12,000 years ago.

Long story short, multigrain bread is particularly ancient in origins. This is in part because any bread that contains more than one type of grain counts as multigrain.

The ancient Mesopotamians baked mixed grain bread well over 4,000 years ago. Typically the bread consisted of barley and wheat grains. The Mesopotamians considered the valuable, so much so that they used old, unused bread to make an ancient type of mead to avoid waste.

In Europe, refined wheat bread quickly became the popular choice for the wealthy. The poor being unable to afford the refined flour, made do with mixing more than one type of grain flour.

In Germany, rye flour and wheat flour became a popular mix for peasant bread, while in France, barley, and millet were typically the mixed grain of choice for peasant bread. In Asia, rice and wheat mixed bread types became popular with the poor and wealthy alike.

With the advent of inexpensive, refined white flour production grew during the Industrial Revolution, mixed-grain bread lost favor. Even the poor could afford single-grain flour to bake their bread.

It did not take long for the world to return to its bread-making roots, though. In the United States, multigrain bread took off again in 1989 and into the 1990s. Multigrain bread became touted as the healthiest bread on the market, providing more vitamins and nutrients than white varieties.

Today, multigrain bread remains the popular choice of bread for nutritionists, dieticians, and health gurus of the United States. Hundreds of commercial brands produce their version of multigrain bread, from 7-grain to 12-grain loaves, to Oat Bread and barley variations.

Multigrain Bread Ingredients

The ingredients in multigrain bread vary, but the general rule is that every multigrain recipe must contain more than one type of cereal grain. Common variations and mixes are as follow:

• Wheat
• Sorghum
• Oats
• Barley
• Flax
• Corn
• Millet
• Quinoa

As long as more than two of these or any other cereal grain is present in the recipe, the bread qualifies as multigrain.

Multigrain Bread Nutritional Information

Multigrain being hailed as the healthiest bread on the supermarket shelves makes some sense. Depending on the grains, seeds, and nuts included in the bread, the nutritional content of multigrain bread is typically higher than refined wheat products.

Take for example 7-grain bread and 12-grain bread.

Common recipes of 7-grain bread have roughly only 1.5 grams of fat and sugar, 7% of daily calcium needs, 4% of daily niacin needs, and 9% of daily iron needs. Plus, the 7-grain bread usually has about 4 grams of fiber per serving.

Common recipes of 12-grain bread have only about 19 grams of carbs, 2 grams of sugar, 3 grams of fiber, and a whopping 5 grams of protein.

Compared to a serving of typical white bread, with only about 3 grams of protein, less than 1 gram of fiber, 2 grams of sugar, and 22 grams of carbs, the multigrain types of bread do have more nutritional content.

How to Make Multigrain Bread

Making multigrain bread is fairly simple. Bakers simply mix their dough using the desired amounts of mixed grains and proceed with baking the bread much the same as any yeasted loaf recipe.

Most multigrain bread recipes call for two proofing stages to create a fluffy loaf. The first stage typically occurs for an hour or two after you have mixed the ingredients and the dough has been formed into a ball.

The second proofing stage occurs after the dough has been shaped and placed into the loaf pans or onto the baking sheet. After the second proofing stage, you bake the bread for just over a half hour or until golden brown.

Multigrain Bread Recipes

There are thousands of variations of multigrain bread recipes to bake.

For a hearty, nutritionally varied recipe, give a nine-grain bread a try. Nine-grain usually contains some variation of corn, millet, rice, rye, wheat, barley, flax, and oats. You select variations of other grains to fill in the required number of nine grains.

For a simpler multigrain bread, consider using oats, wheat flour, and flax to create a fiber-rich bread recipe.

Multigrain bread recipes are perfect for experimenting. As long as two or more grains are present, you have yourself a multigrain bread to try!

Multigrain Bread FAQ's