Easy Farmhouse Multi-Grain Bread (For Bread Machine)

I LOVE whole grain breads but hate paying three and a half bucks for a loaf. I cobbled this together to have as a quick and easy recipe using a minimum of things one would have to run to the store for. I have pretty much every ingredient on this list on hand most of the time. The only "special" item is the rolled whole grain hot cereal. I can find Bob's Red Mill quite easily and inexpensively, and a bag of it will make several loaves of bread. You can use seven-grain or ten-grain or 100-grain cereal if you want, of course. This makes a really nice, soft, delicious loaf- perfect for sandwiches, with the nubby texture of the whole grains that I Iove so much. UPDATE: I also thought this bread just need a little "something" and now add 1/2 cup apple sauce. Put the apple sauce in your liquid measure first, then add the milk until they both together measure just under one cup.

• Ready In: 2 hrs 45 mins
• Serves: 10-12
• Yields: 1 1.5 pound loaf

Ingredients

• 1  cup milk, warmed but not boiled (a little less than a cup is perfect)
• 1  egg
• 2  tablespoons butter, softened or cut into pieces
• 1⁄4 cup honey
• 1  lb bread flour (about 3 and a quarter cups)
• 1  cup  multi-grain hot cereal, uncooked
• 2  teaspoons salt
• 2  teaspoons bread machine yeast (heaping)

Directions

1. Place all in bread machine pan in order given unless instructed otherwise by your machine's manufacturer. Bake on regular setting, medium or light color.
2. Either use a scant cup of milk or add a couple or three tablespoons of flour to this to get the doughball the right texture. Keep your flour out and handy just in case, and watch the doughball after it's kneaded for a few minutes.
3. Tip: If you have a kitchen scale, measuring flour by weight instead of by volume is not only much more accurate, it's faster and easier too.
4. Tip: Never just throw the ingredients into a bread machine and leave it, if you can help it. Let the doughball form, then let the machine work it about five minutes more, then see what it looks like. If the paddle smushes through the bottom of the dough with every turn your dough is too wet. If your dough just spins around on top of the paddle or doesn't form at all, your dough is too dry. The ideal texture is soft enough to smush some of the time but firm enough to spin sometimes, then go off-center and smack the sides of the bread pan a lot.
5. Enjoy!