Homemade Soft Multi-Grain Bread - Writer in the Kitchen
“If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens.” – Robert Browning
I dabbled with different bread recipes over the years, though have become more adamant about making all my own breads in the past year. This super-soft, all-purpose bread gets top billing alongside the sourdough and peasant bread I make regularly.
“Bread is the king of the table and all else is merely the court that surrounds the king. The countries are the soup, the meat, the vegetables, the salad, but bread is king.” – Louis Bromfield, American novelist (1896-1956)
Commercially-sliced bread wasn't available until the twentieth-century, which meant that my nineteenth-century friends were still enjoying the bread made daily in their kitchens. With a growing family and hungry ranch hands to feed, the Gallagher kitchen produces many loaves a week. Clara Stowe's inn in Crooked Creek produces even more during fair-weather months. While baking bread daily can be inconvenient, especially the busier people are, there is great satisfaction in the kneading and rising, and of course the scent of fresh bread wafting through the house.
“Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.” – James Beard
I have often said that while the land was rougher and life harder, I imagine it would have been infinitely more satisfying before the advent of so many conveniences. Or, is that just my thinking?
This recipe comes from Sally's Baking Addition. Except for a experimenting with a wheat version (to be shared at a later date), I have made no modifications. You can find the recipe on her blog.
If you try this recipe, I hope you'll let me know how it worked out! I made it often prior to this posting, and it is soft and delicious every time.
