Nine out of 10 Cereals Agree....

The boy is an enthusiastic fan of the family bread machine. He thinks it's really, really nifty to come home from art camp to the comforting smell of baking bread. "It smells just like Subway!" he declared the other day when I tried out a new recipe for his sandwiches.

His comment got me thinking: How many kids will grow up and associate Subway or some other fast-food chain with the smell of baking bread? And is that sad or just...evolution? I suppose I should be thankful that some kids will know what baking bread smells like, that they won't think about bread and conjure the aroma of a plastic sack and a trio of color dots. Perhaps that memory of the smell of baking bread will one day lead them to be curious enough to try making their own Subway-style bread, just as the boy optioned when we told him about the bread machine.

Eh, whatever. You already know, Gentle Reader, that my ruminations are hardly worth typing up and posting, let alone reading. Let's get to the recipe, shall we?

Multi Grain Whole Wheat7 oz. water
1 3/4 C whole wheat flour
1 T butter
1 T dry milk
1/4 C honey
1 t salt
1/2 t gluten
1/4 C 10-grain cereal
2 1/4 t active dry yeast

1. Put the ingredients into the bread machine bucket in the order established by the machine's manufacturer.
   
2. Select the Whole Wheat setting.
   
3. Start the bread-making cycle.

Yield: One 1-pound loaf

Nutritional Info
Your guess is as good as mine!

The Faudie's Futzings
As the title of this post suggests, I used a nine-grain cereal blend that I acquired at Central Markup's bulk foods playland. Also available were four- and six-grain blends, but in the spirit of staying as true to the recipe as possible (without breaking the bank), I chose the nine-grain blend.

If you're not familiar with the sort of cereal I'm referring to, Gentle Reader, don't think that I'm talking about stuff you might find in a box alongside Fruit Loops and Sugar Smacks and other teeth-rotting breakfast items. No, the multi-grain cereal used is a blend of wheat, rye, triticale, oats, oat bran, corn, barley, soya beans, brown rice, millet, flax seeds or other grains. I can't tell you for sure what nine are in the cereal I bought since the label the machine spit out when I weighed it didn't include that information. (Usually it does, so I'm a tad disappointed.) I suppose if you really wanted a hearty breakfast and had the time and patience, you could cook up one of these cereal blends as a hot cereal, but I prefer the single-serving packets Kashi makes, thank you very much.

What I found interesting when perusing my (limited) choices of bulk multi-grain cereals was how very different the texture of the six-grain and four-grain blends was compared to the nine-grain blend. The former two had larger pieces; in fact, you could easily pick out the rolled oats. The nine-grain blend? Not so much. In fact, when I was gathering up my ingredients before baking this loaf, I initially mistook the bag of cereal for my bag of couscous. That's how small the granules are.

Because the granules were so small, I was concerned that it might lead to a gritty loaf, particularly since there's not a lot of moisture in the recipe. However, that concern was for naught. See for yourself:
Another thing that amazed me about this loaf: It got quite a rise for something made of whole wheat flour and a quarter-cup of multi-grain cereal yet only half a teaspoon of vital gluten. Again, see for yourself, Gentle Reader, how tall the loaf rose:
Rarely do the loaves we've made rise to the top of the bucket--and stay there. No, it's been my experience that if a loaf rises that high, it's doomed to sink like a pothole on a New York City street.

The bread is quite tasty, grit-free and filling. The boy can't wait to have more sandwiches on it, and he assures me the bread's as good as the bread at Subway. Gee, thanks, son.