How to Make Homemade 12 Grain Bread
on Apr 10, 2015, Updated Jan 28, 2025
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Continuing with my Earth Month Challenge this week – I’m moving to food. Today, I’m showing your how to make a delicious, homemade 12 Grain Bread. Bread is often a source of hidden ingredients (potassium bromate, trans fats, monoglycerides, diglycerides, BHA, high fructose corn syrup, coloring, soy lecithin – to name a few).
Since I’d rather not feed my family these ingredients, I’ve learned over the years to bake my own super yummy bread. Another bonus – baking my bread is also lot cheaper than buying it from the store!
One way that I keep my costs down is to grind my own flour. I buy wheat berries in bulk from Azure Standard and make my own flour for pennies on the dollar. Because I don’t have a lot of time, and I have six hungry people to feed, I need to bake a lot of bread very quickly.
Using the right equipment, I’m able to grind my own flour AND bake five loaves of yummy bread in under two hours – from start to finish, including clean up time. That’s not all active time either. The bread rises for half an hour and also bakes for half an hour.
I grew up eating what I call REAL BREAD in Germany. Bread that crunches. Bread that’s made with whole ingredients. Bread that has flavor. We used to joke that American Bread was plastic compared to the German bread we bought from bakeries.
You know what plastic bread I’m talking about, right? After I got married and started cooking for my husband and then later my kids, there weren’t many great bread options for me. The good bread that I could find was seriously expensive and out of my price range. After meeting a woman who ground her own flour and baked her own delicious bread in 2003, I think, I was hooked. And I have been grinding my own flour and baking my own bread ever since.
I came upon this recipe for 12 Grain Bread by accident when I bought Bob’s Red Mill 10 grain hot cereal. I meant to buy it, but I thought I was getting something different – more along the lines of whole oats, rather than ingredients that were ground more finely for hot cereal. Since I had a huge bag that I couldn’t return, I had to figure out how to use it.
I can’t stand oatmeal, but it turns out, this hot cereal mix works just as well as for bread as the non-ground mix I thought I was buying. The 12 grains in this bread are found mostly in the 10-grain cereal (hard red wheat, rye, triticale, oat bran, oats, corn, barley, soy beans, brown rice, millet, and flaxseed). Additionally, I add sunflower and chia seeds.
How to Make Homemade 12 Grain Bread
The first step to making the bread is to put all ingredients in your Wondermix kitchen mixer, starting with the wet ingredients. You’ll want to wait to add the last of the flour, as the amount is some what subjective.
Make sure the lid is on the WonderMix and then turn the machine on SPEED 2. While it’s mixing, quickly add in the last 3-4 cups of flour, stopping when the dough stops sticking to the side of the bowl. This is a process called cleaning the sides of the bowl.
I took a little video to show you what I mean by cleaning the sides of the bowl. In this video, my dough is still a little wet. I could have added a bit more flour, but this is my personal preference, because the wetter the dough, the softer (and less dense) the bread. So I stopped adding flour once the sides were mostly cleaned.
Now, oil a bread board and your hands, turn the dough out onto the board and divide it into five equal parts. Punch them down to release air bubbles, then add them to oiled bread pans. Then, let your dough rise until doubled, about 30-35 minutes. I put mine on top of my oven while it’s pre-heating, and cover them with a towel.
Finally, bake bread at 350 degrees for 30-35 more minutes. Clean up your kitchen while the bread is baking. Once the bread is finished, remove for the oven and cool on racks for 15 minutes. Remove the bread and let it cool completely before putting it inside your bread box, or freezing.
How to Make Homemade 12 Grain Bread
Ingredients
- 6 cups warm water, between 120 and 130 degrees
- 1/2 cup oil
- 3/4 cup honey
- 8-10 cups freshly ground hard red wheat
- 2 cups Bob's Red Mill 10 Grain Hot Cereal
- 1 cup sunflowers
- 1 cup old fashioned oats
- 1/2 cup chia seeds
- 1 heaping TBS REAL salt
- 3 TBS SAF yeast
- An additional 3-4 cups of of freshly ground hard red wheat flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Add wet ingredients to your mixer first. Then add dry ingredients, except the last 3-4 cups of flour.
- Turn the mixer on SPEED 2 and add the last flour, one cup at a time, until the dough cleans the sides of the bowl and comes up from the bottom. The wetter the dough, the softer the bread, so stop adding flour once the sides of the bowl look clean while it's still mixing.
- Knead on SPEED 2 FOR 4-5 minutes.
- While the dough is kneading, grease 5 loaf pans and pour a bit of oil on a bread board.
- Slightly oil your hands and turn the dough out onto bread board. Divide the dough into 5 equal loaves.
- Shape loaves and place in the pans.
- Then let dough rise until doubled, usually about 30-35 minutes. I put my loaf pans on my stove and cover with a towel.
- Once the dough has doubled, bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes, or until the inside temperature of the bread is 180 degrees.
When I first starting baking my own bread, I used my little Kitchen Aid, and I must admit, it just didn’t work. Admittedly, I had the smallest of the Kitchen Aids, but the bowl capacity was only half and the motor was not nearly as powerful. If you’re serious about baking a lot of bread, I can’t recommend a machine like this highly enough. Upgrading my mixer made all the difference in my bread baking career.
If you’re curious about the WonderMix Kitchen Machine, here are the specs –
- 900 Watt Motor
- Direct Drive High Torque Transmission
- 3 Speeds + Pulse
- Large 22 Cup Mixing Bowl (5.5 qt.)
- Heavy Duty Tru-Mix Dough Hook
- Convenient bowl handle
- BPA Free
- Cord Storage Compartment
- No Walking Base
- Overload Protection
- Quiet Operation
- Dishwasher Safe Bowl
- Safety Bowl Locking System
- Double Beating Whisks
- For a limited time: comes with Cookie Whips & Blender
- Several other attachments available
- Designed, Engineered & Licensed in Germany
I’ve been very happy with the WonderMix. The only thing that messes me up when I use it is when I forget to take the cord out of the bottom. I love the convenient storage compartment at the bottom of the mixer, but when the bowl is full of bread dough and you forgot about the cord…let’s just say it’s tricky to get the cord out. So don’t do that, mm-kay? ๐
Okay, are you sold? You can buy the Wondermix Kitchen Mixer on Amazon.
I feel like this would be a life changer. Bread is one of those constant issues in our house– the good stuff is so expensive. And it’s good so it gets eaten quickly!
I have really been wanting to try a whole wheat honey oat bread loaf! I’ve seen so many yummy recipes!
Oh, my! I have so many recipes I would love to make in there. I would do a huge recipe of bagels… or my honey wheat oat loaves that just about kill my stand mixer (to the point they get hot and smoke) every time I make them. Would love one of these.
Honey Wheat Bread or maybe some Challah!
What a lovely giveaway
I love baking and would love to use this.
Whole wheat bread!!
I NEED THIS. I seriously would be so stoked to win this. I would probably first start with your recipe, as I like a good, hearty, seedy bread.
Bread!! I just don’t have the umph to do the bread mixing by hand anymore.
Bread, bread, and more bread!
I would like to make my sourdough bread in it! My KitchenAid can’t handle it so I have to knead it by hand.
I’m going to try whole wheat banana nut bread
I too have a little Kitchen Aid and would love to upgrade.
I would like to try using it to make some alternative grain breads such as Spelt.
I love to bake bread, and this recipe looks AWESOME! It would be so much easier with a great appliance like this.
I wold love to make many types of breads, especially sourdough. Your recipe sounds wonderful too!
I would definitely be making bread, rolls all sorts of baked goods.
I would definitely use a mixer like this. I have been baking a big batch of cinnamon rolls that I love but my Kitchen Aide is having a hard time with 10 c. of flour. This bread sounds heavenly!
i would like to make dough for biscuits
You sure pack a lot of goodness in one loaf of bread. Sounds delicious!
I would love to have this mixer. I’m just learning to make bread. I’ve transitioned my whole kitchen from what we eat to what we eat out of. It’s been a process as I couldn’t do it all at once. But I can now say we run a 90/10 clean kitchen when it comes to organic, non-gmo, all food cooked at home. Bread though was one of the last things I tackled and I still don’t have it down 100%. Part of the reason is it’s a routine I haven’t mastered and not having all the supplies (enough pans, this mixer lol). Thank you so much for sharing!
Like you, I bake my own bread. I don’t grind my own wheat, though, and would be really interested in trying your recipe. I’m also part of our coal WAPF chapter, and our chapter leader has a good recipe too.
bread!
Bread, bread, andhttps://archiedown.wordpress.com bread. Seriously, what wouldn’t I make with this. My family loves home-made bread. I have several favorite recipes and love to try new ones.
Thanks for the great give-away!
This is awesome! Definitely an appliance that seems worthwhile to have around.
I’ve always wanted to make my own sourdough bread.. that’s what I would make first if I won this.
Id love to make wheat bread
I would love to make the wheat bread recepie you posted it sounds really good.
I would love to make some cinnamon raisin bread with this Wonder mix deluxe kitchen mixer.
Baking five loaves of bread in under two hours is amazing!!! So want this!
I would love to make sourdough bread.
I would make some French Bread.
I would love to make any kind of bread. This would be great to get me started. Thanks for the giveaway.
There is a bakery in Seattle that sells mille-grain bread. It is so wonderful and my dad, brother and I were trying to replicate it at home…this might be the ticket!
wheat bread
I would like to make pita bread
That looks so good! I have never baked my own bread but I would love to make sourdough bread!
I use the 10 grain cereal to make another type of bread, but this sounds very interesting. Will give it a try.
If I won the Wondermix Kitchen Mixer, I would make pizza dough. I have been wanting to make my own and freeze, so we could have homemade pizza more easily ๐
I have never used a mixer before believe it or not lol… and I have never made my own bread other than the frozen ones. I have always wanted to though. It would save a ton of money!
Tortillas and bread
would love to learn to make sour dough with iT!
How awesome of a machine. Just starting to decrease the amount of process foods we have in our house. Would love this!
Whole wheat bread!!!
I would love to make my own bread!
I would want to try your recipe, all those loaves at once sounds awesome!
I want to make sourdough brea.
I LOVE multigrain bread, so I’d probably start there!
I would love to make bread with it!
We love to eat breads so this would be perfect!!!
Your bread looks incredible! And what a fantastic giveaway! Sharing all around for you!
I love baking my own bread! Coming from England, American store bought bread is not great, and I got a bread maker within 3 months of living here. Now the whole family (5 of us) eat home baked bread.
We are all better for it!
I would make bread!
I can’t wait to make my Bluberry Bagels and Homemade wheat bread.
My cinnamon raisin rolls would be great with this!
Thanks for the great recipe and video. And the giveaway! Have had my eye on the Wondermix and came across your site while checking out reviews of it.
I would make sweet rolls!
I would use this to make pizza dough, cakes or cookies I bet I could make just about anything in it. Thanks for the chance to win!
I would make cinnamon rolls
I would make monkey bread or banana bread
I would love to make homemade 15 grain bread and whole wheat bread the most!
I would make bread, or cinnamon rolls, or really anything yeasty. I’ve been avoiding a lot of recipes because I’m mixing by hand right now.
I would make buttered rolls.
I would like to try making all the different kinds of breads that I have seen in so many recipes. My fiance and I love fresh homemade bread and this mixer looks like it would make it really easy to mix and knead.
I would love to make sourdough bread
I would like to be able to make large quantities of homemade bread.
I’d like to win this mixer so I can give it to my daughter for her to make bread for my grand kids.
I would love to try making homemade sourdough bread!
The sky would be the limit with this mixer. I would probably make Ezekiel Bread first.
some sourdough bread
Bread and rolls.
This looks amazing, it reminds me of the lovely hearty multi-grain breads we would eat in Germany.
I’d give this as a gift to my mother. Knowing her, the first thing she’d make would be chocolate chip cookies!
I would make a lemon poppy seed cake which is my FAVORITE thing ever ๐
yum love it with the lemon icing ! ya gotta try it.. xoxoxo
This would be amazing. I would make homemade cinnamon rolls and I would try this bred recipe. Yum!! And homemade pizza dough.
I would love to make Zucchini bread, and a whole list of other things!!
I’d end up making zucchini bread, and banana bread.
I would gift this to my sister, who enjoys cooking and is always hosting some family shindig with lots of homemade goodies.
Can the honey be cut in half? Not a fan of sweet bread. Can this be done in a breadachine?
This recipe yields 5 loaves of bread, so the amount of honey per loaf is actually divided by 5. The bread is not sweet. I have never tried to make it in a bread machine, so I do not know.
Wondering if I can find ground hard red wheat flour, can I use regular wheat flour instead? Thanks
Can I use regular wheat flour? Thanks
Hi Nathalie, I’ve only used freshly ground flour in the recipe. I’m sure you can use regular wheat flour, but the consistency will be different. So you may have to play around with the amounts because I don’t think they will be the same. Add enough flour for the mixer to clean the sides of the mixing bowl and you should be fine.