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Cook’s Country Dakota Bread is a delicious whole grain fresh bread from scratch!
We love making Dakota Bread from scratch at Life Currents! Our whole grain, yeast-raised loaf is delicious, nutritious, and easy to make. If you want to learn how to make it too, scroll down for the recipe!
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Please let me know if you have any questions about this recipe. I read all the comments myself and I try to help as soon as I can. I have readers from all levels of comfort and experience in the kitchen on my site, and I’ve tried to answer some of your questions already in the post. But if I’ve missed anything, please feel free to leave a comment and ask.
Fresh bread from scratch
We love to watch America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Country. We stream the shows so we can pick and choose which episodes we watch. The other day we were looking trough some of the episodes, and we came across one that featured Cook’s Country Dakota Bread.
Well, my husband has always wanted to bake bread. From scratch. Using yeast.
And, who doesn’t love hot fresh bread right from the oven.
Maybe even slathered with butter!
When I saw that this Dakota Bread was a 7-grain seeded bread (well, in our case it’s 5-grain), well, I was all over that. Whole grain bread is going to be really tasty and a bit of added nutrition – that’s all good!
And, man can’t live on veggies alone, at least, my husband can’t! So, I decided to get him baking!
Serve this delicious bread with some Corn Cheese Chowder or Creamy Vegetable Gnocchi Soup for a delicious comfort food dinner!
Why is it named that?
Dakota bread got its name because it was created for the celebration of North Dakota’s 100th anniversary of statehood.
All those whole grains represent the state’s bountiful harvest!
7-grain hot cereal mix
The recipe calls for 7-grain hot cereal mix.
My store had a five-grain hot cereal mix from Bob’s Red Mill, and we loved that.
Cook’s Country said in the TV episode that {affiliate link} Bob’s Red Mill and Arrowhead Mills both tested well in their taste tests.
Just make sure that you’re getting hot cereal mix, like old-fashioned oatmeal, with several other grains mixed in; it’s not a cereal mix like raisin bran or Chex or something.
Egg wash
If for some reason you don’t have an egg in the house, and can’t borrow one from the neighbors, feel free to use milk as the wash over the bread.
It works just fine.
You may see in the video that we actually used milk on that loaf. Either way works.
Oh my, this bread was amazing! Light, fluffy, full of grain flavor goodness. And, I’m pretty sure that homemade bread is pure magic.
You take dry flour and add some water and bake it and you get bread – magic I tell you!
I will say that Dan has earned the title of master bread maker in this house! He can bake this bread for me anytime!!!
Oh the waiting…
Oh, one other note, the recipe says to wait 2 hours after the bread comes out of the oven to cut into it to eat it.
Yes, wait, let the bread rest, it helps keep the moisture in and keeps the bread fresher longer.
I know, it’s hard to have to wait.
And frankly, I can’t blame you if you cut into it early. I often do too!
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Cook’s Country Dakota Bread Recipe
Dakota Bread
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons raw unsalted pepitas
- 3 tablespoons raw unsalted sunflower seeds
- 1 teaspoon raw sesame seeds
- 1 teaspoon poppy seeds
- 2 cups hot water
- 1 ½ cups 7-grain hot cereal mix
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3 ½ cups bread flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine pepitas, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, and poppy seeds. Set aside.
- In bowl of stand mixer, combine hot water, cereal mix, honey, and oil and let sit for 10 minutes.
- Add flour, salt, and yeast to cereal mixture. Fit stand mixer with dough hook and knead on low speed until dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.
- Remove 2 tablespoons of the seed mix and reserve for the topping, and add the remaining seed mix to the dough, and mix for 1 additional minute.
- Turn out dough onto lightly floured surface, and knead until seeds are evenly distributed, about 2 minutes.
- Oil a large bowl, and add the dough to the oiled bowl. Flip the dough over so that both sides of the dough have a small amount of oil on them, and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rise at room temperature until doubled in size and fingertip depression in dough springs back slowly, 60 to 90 minutes.
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and punch down. Knead dough a few times, and place on a rimmed baking sheet that’s been lined with parchment paper. Shape dough into a round ball, and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let rise at room temperature until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
- Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lowest positions and heat oven to 425 ° F.
- Using sharp knife, make ¼ inch-deep X in the top of the dough. Brush dough with beaten egg, and sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons seed mixture evenly over top, pressing some of the seeds onto the sides.
- Place a loaf pan on lowest oven rack and fill with 1 cup of hot water. Place baking sheet with dough loaf on upper-middle rack and immediately reduce oven to 375° F. Bake until crust is dark brown, about 45 minutes or until an instant read thermometer reads 200° F. Transfer loaf to wire rack and let cool completely.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations, and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary based on brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes, and more.
Sherrie
Hi, will this recipe work in a bread machine on the dough setting? Then form into loaves to bake? Thanks
Debi
Sherrie, my biggest concern about making the dough in the bread machine would be volume. I think it would work just fine, as long as your bread machine is big enough. I often make dough in the machine – less work and it keeps the cat fur out! And though I haven’t tested it, my guess is it’ll be great.
Terri
This bread is delicious. Can this be made into rolls? Do I need to modify the recipe?
Debi
Terri, I’m glad you love the bread. I’ve never made it into rolls, but I would suspect that the basic recipe is the same. Obviously shaping them would be different. For the baking time, I suspect it would be shorter. I’d probably check them at 20 minutes, but that’s just a guess. Keep an eye on them as they bake. I’d love to hear how they turn out.
Terri
Hi Debi, I find the dough is extremely sticky! Do you recommend adding more flour? I’ve made this bread several times and find myself adding extra flour (almost a cup) I don’t want to have really dry bread when it’s finished. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you, Terri
Debi
Hi Terri, sorry for the delay in answering, as I bet you already went ahead. But, yes, I would add more flour. I’ve baked wet doughs before and they turn out a bit gummy. So I would add a small amount of flour at a time until it’s the way you’re used to it being – thick and soft. Flour can vary based on lots of factors, even the time of year that it’s harvested and milled. If you want to read a bit more on flour, take a look here: https://lifecurrentsblog.com/a-flour-primer/ And I suspect that it’s just the difference in flour that’s making it change.