Garlic Multigrain Bread - #BreadBakers

Talk to me, fellow bakers. Talk to me about your oven mitts. I've been using pretty standard oven mitts - nothing fancy. And they functioned well enough - until last Saturday morning when I removed this bread from the oven. Well, it was when I removed the cloche. I won a beautiful Emile Henry bread cloche and knew before it arrived that I wanted to use it for this month's Bread Bakers. Our host, Mirelle, chose quinoa as our theme and I knew pretty quickly that I would make a simple no knead loaf to test the cloche.

Of course, when it was time to start baking, I started having second thoughts. Maybe I should try something else. I am in the midst of a serious chocolate craving and adding chocolate and making the bread in a loaf pan just seemed like the right thing to do. When one craves chocolate, one should make any and everything chocolate. It took several cookies and a huge brownie to talk me out me of that. But the chocolate craving rages on. (Two more days until a choclatey cake. A few hours until more brownies. I can make it. I hope.)

I like adding things to no knead loaves. Let's be honest, if you have ever made a no knead loaf, you know that they can be pretty blah. I knew the quinoa would add texture but not a ton of flavour so I threw in some chopped garlic. Flax seeds were in my line of sight so they got added too. Then finally, I added a 5 grain cereal mix. Party in the mixing bowl! If I had beer, I would have added that too. Seriously. Cook's Illustrated recommends it. After a long rest, it was time to bake and time to test the cloche. I could have used a cold cloche (the instructions booklet mentioned several recipes starting with a cold one) but I wanted to test it preheated. And oh man was it heated.

When I removed the cover some minutes into baking, my oven mitts threw up the white flag. I have taken a vessel out of a 450 F oven before but clearly, that was just pretending to be hot. The cloche was HOT and I felt it through the mitts.The mitts even scorched a bit.  So this is where I need some help. Clearly, I need new mitts. Mitts that can really stand the heat. My first thought was to get some silicone ones. Have you tried them? Do you have specific brand recommendations? I would hate to grab some that claim to be resistant up to 450 F and then find out that they really aren't. Because this cloche holds on to every bit of heat in that oven. Great for bread, not so for fingers.

Here's my recipe for this garlicky loaf. But be sure to see how my fellow Bread Bakers used quinoa below. I even spy a loaf with chocolate!

Garlic Multigrain Bread

Recipe by: Kelster

Yield: 1 loaf (~ 690 grams)

Ingredients Dough 400 grams all purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast 43 grams quinoa, rinsed 35 grams 5 grain cereal 20 grams flax seeds 15 grams garlic, finely chopped (~4 cloves) 1 1/2 teaspoon salt 300 grams water

Directions In a large bowl mix together flour, yeast, quinoa, 5 grain cereal, flax seeds, garlic and salt until evenly distributed. Add the water and mix until all the flour is moistened. Cover and let sit at room temperature for at least 12 hours. The dough is ready when it's risen and very bubbly.  Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and form it into a ball. Place the ball in a parchment lined (our heavily floured cloth towel-lined) bowl or skillet. Cover loosely and let rise until doubled in size - up to 2 hours.  At least 30 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450 F. Place a heavy covered baking vessel such as a dutch oven, crock or cloche in the oven as it heats. When the dough is ready, carefully transfer the dough to the hot vessel. You can simply place the dough in the vessel on the parchment paper or carefully turn the dough out into vessel. Bake covered for 25 minutes. Remove the cover and bake for an additional 15 - 20 minutes or until the loaf is well-browned and registers 200 F. Cool completely before slicing.

Notes I used Bob's Red Mill 5 grain cereal. 35 grams is approximately 1/3 cup. You could substitute rolled oats or a mix of your choice.  Don't feel like chopping garlic? I completely understand. Try garlic powder. If you do not have a vessel with a cover, foil can be used to cover the vessel.

• Eggnog Cranberry and White Chocolate Quick Bread by Laura at Baking in Pyjamas
• Garlic Multigrain Bread by Kelly at Passion Kneaded
• Maple Walnut Quinoa Quick Bread by Renee at Magnolia Days
• Mocha Porter Quinoa Loaf by Stacy at Food Lust People Love
• No Knead Quinoa Bread by Karen at Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Pan de Quinoa y Miel by Camilla at Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Quinoa and Millet Bread by Anshie at Spiceroots
• Quinoa Apple Muffins by Robin at A Shaggy Dough Story
• Quinoa Poolish Baguettes by Adam at Bakers and Best
• Quinoa Oatmeal Bread by Cindy at Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Quinoa Pumpkin Muffins by Kathya at Basic N Delicious
• Red Quinoa Sourdough Bread by Sophie at Sweet Cinnamon & Honey

What is Bread Bakers? It’s a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our Bread Bakers Pinterest Board. Links are also updated after each event on the Bread Bakers home page. How is the monthly theme determined? We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. Would you like to join in the fun? If you are a food blogger, send an email with your blog name and url to Stacy at foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.