Overnight No-Knead Multi-Grain Bread
November 11, 2010
This bread is delicious the day it’s baked, but makes an even better toast. Try it with a generous slathering of natural peanut butter. And don’t be afraid to experiment with different flours, grains and seeds.
Overnight No-Knead Multi-Grain Bread
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose or bread flour
1 cup rye or oat flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup of mixed seeds and grains (quinoa, millet, amaranth, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, sesame seeds)
1/4 tspn active dry yeast
1 1/2 tspn salt
2 cups water
Preparation
- Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.
- Add water and stir with a long handled spoon until the dough resembles a shaggy ball, adding more water if necessary.
- Cover bowl with cling wrap.
- Allow dough to rise at room temperature for 12-24 hours. It’s ready when it has nearly doubled in size.
- Lightly oil a large bowl and sprinkle it with wheat bran, wheat germ, or flax meal.
- Generously flour a board and your hands. Turn dough onto board and press into a large rectangle. Fold it into thirds like a business letter. Turn it 90 degrees and fold in thirds again.
- Place in prepared bowl seam side down. Cover with cling wrap and let rise for 2-3 hours.
- Put a 6-8 quart heavy covered pot in the oven.
- Preheat oven to 475°F degrees.
- When the dough is ready, remove the hot pot from the oven and confidently flip the dough from the bowl into the pot.
- Quickly sprinkle the top with your favorite combination of seeds and grains. (optional)
- Shake the pot to adjust the dough ball if necessary. Cover pot with the lid.
- Reduce heat to 450 and return pot to the oven.
- Bake for 45 minutes.
- Remove lid and bake for an additional 5 minutes.
- Cool on a wire rack for an hour before slicing. (The hour wait is the hardest part!)
27 Comments
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Bob Vivant 
This sounds easy enough for me to make and healthy for my kids too.
I made this and it came out really, really dense and hard. Any thoughts on what I did wrong?
Lindsay, I’m sorry your bread didn’t turn out the way it was supposed to. It’s hard to say what went wrong without seeing your dough and the loaf. Three things could have caused it: insufficient hydration, overproofing, or flour choice. Skimping on water is the number one cause of dense loaves in my kitchen. Add enough water to achieve a sticky ball–if you touch it with a dry finger, it should stick to your hand. Overproofing will also yield a dense loaf. If the dough rises too rapidly or rises for too long, the yeast will wear out. After you shaped the dough and let it rise for the second time, did it double in size? If so, the yeast was probably fine. The other factor could be related to the flours you used. Rye and oat flours yield denser loaves than ones made with whole wheat. If you suspect it was the flour blend and not the water or yeast, try a blend of 50% whole wheat and 50% all-purpose or bread flour. Or use the same mix of flours as you did in your first loaf and add 2 tablespoons of vital wheat gluten. I hope your next loaf is a success!
If making 2 smaller loaves, what is the baking time?
This is an awesome recipe. A lot of multigrain bread recipes say “use so much of this and so much of that”. I never had all the stuff the recipes called for. So I never tried multigrain bread haha. I like the way this recipe calls for one cup of mixed grains. I added 3 T. of vital wheat gluten to the mix. It seemed a little dry so I added a little extra water too. I made 2 small loaves rather than one large one. The bread was delicious! I’ve never used rye flour before. My first thought after tasting this bread was “wow I wish I had some rye flour”. My second thought was “wow this is really great!”. I baked it in a cast iron dutch oven. The bottom formed an amazingly delicious crust that contrasted beautifully with the hearty but soft inside. We ate it with homemade soft fresh cheese. I’ll definitely make this again but with the rye flour! Thanks for sharing this yummy recipe.
I just finished making this bread and doubled the recipe. Didn’t use any rye flour. It came out fantastic. Thank you. I’m on my 3rd slice. I must restrain myself
It is very hard to chose the right flour for bread beaking. This may help: http://www.germanfoodguide.com/flours.cfm Greetings from a German in Virginia
I have been looking for one of these multigrain bread for a long time. I made it and we just had some now……….DELICIOUS!!!!. Thank you so much for sharing. I used unbleached flour instead of all purpose. I was a little concerned when I saw how “liquid” it was when I put it in my pan but it turned out perfect! Will definitely make it again.
Hello ,
Could you please let me know the size of your cup in ml?
-Thanks ,
Veena
Bob, your recipe would be better if you measured the flours in grams. I would use 200 g of bread flour, 100 g rye and 100 g whole wheat. Total flours = 400 grams. Is that right?
Thankyou for this recipe! Planning on making tomorrow! Quick question: is the cup of mixed seeds added as a dry ingredient…and then the topper is an additional amount?
I love this bread! It comes out perfect time after time
Hi there,
My dough is resting outside for over 5 hours and it has doubled in size. Can I put it in the fridge for another18 hours or should I keep it out??
Thanks
Shiv
I have made this bread many times and I say, go for it. Punch it down and cover it with pladtic wrap or a dedicated shower cap. And put it in the fridge. But do punch it down first.
Thank you, right in time, just punched it down and off to bed. Hello from Dubai!
I hope all goes well! I live this bread best of all the ones I make. We have LONG Winters in the Northwoods of Wisconsin and plenty of time to bake and…eat good bread. Bon appétit!
Thank you Mireille, just out of the oven and turned out pretty amazing. It looks very airy. Will know more when I am able to slice the bread. I think this one is the best I have baked.
The comments on this made me a little nervous but this bread came out delish! I followed the directions and went with dark rye flour. I used walnuts, flax and sunflower seeds for my nut choice and it is so good! I skipped the nuts on top because that’s not my jam but it came out great! I let it rise for about 17 hours total and did some time rising in the oven with a pot of boiling water as it was a cold dry day when I made it.
Does it really require only 1/4 tsp of yeast
Amazingly, yes.
Is the water room temp or 105-110F
Does the recipe really call for only 1/4 t yeast? That’s what I added and 12 hours later it hasn’t risen at all.
Yes, Anne, it really calls for only 1/4 tsp yeast. I just finished eating my first loaf and I let it rise for 2 days before I baked it, not that I needed to but just couldn’t get to it. The first day I had to slice it with an electric knife because the crust was so hard but I refrigerate my bread because I can’t eat it fast enough and the third day on I was able to slice it with a bread knife. I’m trying to figure out how to make the crust not so hard and I will let you all know. Just know that if you use an enameled cast iron dutch oven that is light on the inside, it will be mottled black when you’re done.
If you want a softer crust, cover the baked loaf with a dish towel about halfway through the cooling period. Or, lightly brush the top with butter.
When I decided to bake bread, I hunted for a multigrain recipe and lots of seeds.I make this load as a boulé in a Dutch oven several times. It was perfect. Then, I started making sourdough bread. A few days ago, I knew I could adapt this recipe for sourdough. I did that and baked it in a ceramic cloché. The loaf was a bit more dense than I thought it would be. It didn’t have many sourdough “bubbles” as I had hoped. The crust was delightfully chewy. Next time, I will use a tad more sourdough starter. I think I will let it raise a bit longer. I will add some extra gluten. I will also start the loaf at 500 degrees and lower it after 15 minutes to 450 for the remainder of time. Imwill bake for 10 minutes with the lid off after the main time.