Easy Vegan Multigrain Bread
4.28 from 18 votes
Easy Vegan Multigrain Bread | The Full Helping

I think I may be the only bread baker I know who hasn’t been baking sourdough in quarantine! I’ve made a few loaves, but something about the wait times and planning hasn’t been working for me. I’ve been much more consistent with yeasted loaves, which I can make and bake within a few hours, on a whim if need be. I shared my favorite white sandwich bread a while back, a sweet maple oat bread, and I’m following up today with an easy vegan multigrain loaf.

The multiple grains here come from King Arthur’s six-grain blend, which I’ve enjoyed for a while now as a hot cereal that isn’t oatmeal (not that I don’t love oatmeal, but I crave variety sometimes!). The King Arthur website tends to be the place that I go for bread recipe inspiration: I don’t always follow the recipes precisely, but I can usually rest assured that the proportions and formulas will work, and work well.

As I was poking around one day, I saw this recipe. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to create the multigrain bread that I’ve been dreaming of, and also to put my grain blend to good use. The KAF blend that I use has barley flakes, rolled oats, rye chops, malted wheat flakes, rye flakes, millet, and quinoa flakes—in other words, a lot of my favorite grains. But you can use another grain blend, too. There are many hot breakfast cereal blends that have some combination of wheat, barley, millet, flax, and so on. Bob’s Red Mill makes a few, and Trader Joe’s makes one, too.

Easy Vegan Multigrain Bread | The Full Helping

The beauty of the bread, once it’s baked, is the balance. It’s got texture, but it’s still tender and soft. It’s mildly sweet, but only mildly. It smells a little nutty as it bakes, but when you cut it open, it has that faintly buttery smell that a regular white loaf has. And it’s perfect for sandwiches. I’ve been using it for one particular sandwich often in the last few weeks, and I’ll share that recipe soon.

I use instant yeast for my yeasted breads, but regular yeast will also work. I give instructions for activating it at the end of the recipe, if needed. And while I admit to only using my stand mixer for kneading lately, you don’t need one to make the recipe! I love kneading bread, and once I do it, I’m always glad I did. But my cooking all throughout the last three months has been about letting things be easier and faster when they can be.

Here’s the recipe.

Easy Vegan Multigrain Bread | The Full Helping
4.28 from 18 votes

Easy Vegan Multigrain Bread

Author – Gena Hamshaw
Yields: 16 slices

Ingredients

  • 2 cups (240 g) unbleached, all purpose flour or bread flour
  • 1 cup (120 g) white whole wheat flour (substitute whole wheat flour or additional all purpose/bread flour)
  • 1 cup (128 g) multigrain blend (such as King Arthur Flour's Six-Grain Blend or Bob's Red Mill 10 Grain Hot Cereal)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt (I use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt)
  • 2 teaspoons (7 g) instant yeast
  • 3 tablespoons vegan butter, plus extra for greasing the loaf pan (42g)
  • 2 tablespoons (40 g) maple syrup
  • 1 cup + 2 tbsp (255 g) water

Instructions

  • In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer (if using one), whisk together the flours, the multigrain blend, the salt, and the yeast.*
  • Melt the butter in a small or medium saucepan. Stir in the maple syrup and water. Allow the water to come to about 110F (hot to the touch, but not painful—you can use a probe thermometer or touch).
  • Add the liquid to the dry ingredients. Use a spatula to mix everything into a sticky dough ball. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes, or until the dough is becoming smooth and supple. Alternately, you can mix wet and dry ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer, fitted with the dough hook. Knead on medium low speed (3 or 4) for 5 minutes.
  • Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl. Allow it to rise for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
  • Use vegan butter to grease a standard loaf pan (8. 5 x 4. 5 x 2. 75 inch). Lightly oil a work surface. Transfer the dough to the work surface. Shape it into a rectangle that’s about 9” x 13”, with a short end facing you. Starting at the top edge, roll the dough into a log about 4” x 8”. Gently tuck the ends in and make sure the seam of the bread is underneath the roll. Gently transfer the roll to your prepared loaf pan.
  • Allow your bread to rise, uncovered, for another 30-60 minutes, until it has risen about 1 ½” inches above the edge of your loaf pan. About 15 minutes after the bread begins this second rise, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
  • Bake the bread for 30-40 minutes, or until it's a deep golden brown on top. A probe thermometer should register at least 190F in the center of the bread, and/or the bottom should sound hollow when tapped. Remove the bread from the loaf pan and transfer it to a cooling rack. Allow the bread to cool completely before slicing and storing.

Notes

If you have regular yeast rather than instant, begin the recipe by preparing the wet ingredients and then sprinkling the yeast on top of them. Allow them to sit for 5-10 minutes, or until the wet ingredients are frothy. Then proceed with the recipe!
Bread should be stored in a bread keeper or brown paper bag, outside of the fridge. If you don’t plan to eat it within a couple days, you can freeze slices for up to 1 month.
Easy Vegan Multigrain Bread | The Full Helping

I’m always in the mood for homemade bread, and that has felt especially true during the Covid-19 crisis, and the yearning for comfort and normalcy that it creates. For me, the unrest in the world right now makes something homemade and soothing even more welcome.

And there’s something symbolically appropriate about bread now, too. Much of the conversation being had about race asks white people to acknowledge our privilege, to listen, and to offer reparation. “Breaking bread” can be a literal description of a shared meal, but it also denotes a gesture of sharing. May we all find ways to do more of that: to acknowledge, to listen, and to repair.

Enjoy this lovely loaf. I’ll be back later this week with a quick little lunch salad that I’ve been making often these days!

xo

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Categories: Vegan Basics
Method: Oven
Dietary Preferences: Soy Free, Tree Nut Free

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    19 Comments
  1. Do you use all the vegan butter on greasing the pan or do you use some in the loaf?

  2. 5 stars
    Brilliant bread recipe. Makes the best bread I’ve ever made. Even better than sourdough. I sub the butter for olive oil. I’ve not bought shop bread since finding this recipe. The taste is something else and it works every time!

  3. Hello, question about the flours. Can we just use three cups of something like an oat flour? Thank you.

    • Hi there! Oat flour won’t work in this recipe, I’m afraid—as written, it needs gluten to turn out correctly. Glad you asked 🙂

  4. 5 stars
    I made this bread today and it is delicious. I used unbleached all purpose flour and whole wheat flour. However, I didn’t have multigrain flour so I ground some organic oatmeal in my little Ninja blender and used one cup of that to substitute. Also added a sprinkling of flax meal and about 1 Tb of wheat germ.
    While the loaf didn’t rise in the pan as it should have – possibly the yeast was old – the result was still amazing.

  5. Hi Gena
    Would really like to make this for my grandson but he is not suppose to have salt in his diet because he’s a 9 month old. Is it ok to leave out the salt totally? Thks

    • Hi Belinda,

      Understood. The recipe may still work, but without the salt, the bread may be drier and flatter (salt strengthens the gluten structure and volume of the bread). It will also taste different. I think you could safely reduce to 1 teaspoon, but I can’t vouch for how it’ll turn out without any added salt at all!

      G

  6. Wow–I can’t wait to make this bread! And I hear you on the sourdough thing. My starter has mainly been going into waffles and pizza dough, and I’m baking yeasted breads instead.

    I love to bake from KAF’s website too and always buy their flour when I’m stateside (trying not to think of when I might get my next bag). One thing I learned from their blog is you really don’t have to dissolve active dry yeast anymore if you don’t want to! You can pretty much use it like instant yeast:

    https://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2015/09/25/active-dry-yeast

    I usually have instant on hand but have done this a couple of times in the past when only active dry was available, and it worked fine. Kinda cool!

    • Wow, that’s so good to know! I’ve always assumed regular yeast had to be activated with liquid ingredients first. Thanks for this tip! Much appreciated.

      • 5 stars
        Glad you found it interesting too!
        Back to say I made the loaf and it’s wonderful–a definite keeper. Am making another one today. It’s a fast and high riser, especially in this hotter weather we’ve been having. Your advice to start preheating the oven 15 minutes into the second rise was spot-on.

  7. How do you think this will work with all white whole wheat?
    What about using just oats instead of the grain mix? Any ideas on how much to use if I try to make my own grain mix?

    • Hi Chana! I think it will probably work, it may just be a little denser than what you see here. And yes, 1 cup of rolled oats is a perfect substitute 🙂 I haven’t checked, but I’m guessing there are some good recipes online for 5 or 6 grain hot cereal mixes, and if you make one of those, that’ll work, too!