Susanna's Bread Recipe

The other day while I was with Susanna, someone called her to request her bread recipe--the one about 450 people tasted at her daughter's wedding. When I referred to the delicious bread on my blog, several people asked about the recipe. Last night someone suggested I post Susanna's bread recipe on my blog. This is apparently a much-desired bread recipe.

Susanna tells me her daughter Hilda got a similar recipe from Marijane Nisly, one of the creative cooks and bakers in our church.

After David and Susanna had spent a number of weeks in Belgium, and enjoyed the breads they tasted there, they wanted to have regular access to a more-European style bread at home, so Susanna started with Marijane's recipe and tweaked it to make it just to their liking.

Thanks to Susanna for sharing the recipe with me and giving me permission to post it here:

Crusty Multi-Grain Baguettes

2 T. yeast
4 c. warm water
5 c. white flour*
1 c. rye flour
1 c. oatmeal
2 ½ c. whole wheat flour
1/4 c. wheat gluten
5 tsp. salt
½ c. wheat bran
4 T. honey

(* I use only 4 ½ c. total white flour; 4 c. when I am adding ingredients in the mixer, and the other ½ c. I knead in by hand when I put it into the bowl it will rise in.)

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in water. With an electric mixer, combine flours, oatmeal, gluten, bran and salt. Add honey and yeast mixture. Knead on med.-low speed until dough is smooth and elastic. Shape into a ball. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl; cover and let rise in a warm place until double in bulk (1 hour).
Deflate dough; divide in half and shape each half into a 8" X 12" rectangle. Roll from the long side into a loaf about 12-14" long. (2 loaves should fit on a cookie sheet side by side; horizontally, or lengthwise.) Cover and let rise until dbl. in bulk; 30-40 min. With a serrated knife make 3 slight, diagonal slits, lightly spray with water and then sprinkle 1 T. oatmeal on top. Bake at 450 degrees ( I bake it at 425-450) 25 min.

Yield: 2 baguettes.

Several additional comments--I am a little picky about storage of this bread since it dries fairly easily and gets moldy if left out too long. I like to slice the bread as soon as it is cooled, and then store it in Zip-Lock (freezer) bags, since they are more airtight than other bags. I put in the amount of slices that we will use in a day or two, and freeze it right away. I get about 30 slices per loaf.

From Miriam:  BTW, according to a pronunciation I heard online, "baguette" sounds very much like a curt request at the store check-out:  "Bag it."  "Baguette" is a French word.