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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.
Hanady | Recipe Nomad
Oh you are daring! I have never been brave enough to make my own bread!! I’ll muster up the courage and try this soon!
Stephanie@ApplesforCJ
Cheers to Dan for baking what looks like some awesome bread! Not sure why you would need to wait for 2 hours but I guess there must be a logical reason for that 🙂
Jennifer A Stewart
I love the smell of fresh baked bread. I don’t frequent fancy bakeries to much as I always leave with too many loaves. The seed ones are my favorite. I love the texture of the seeds on the top with the crusty outside and inside too. As I get older I realize I need more texture in my foods. I don’t eat that much bread anymore unless it is special. Like this one!!
swathi
This is my kind of bread, it has been a while I baked bread. I like this multi grain bread. I think I can use your recipe with sourdough. crunchy seeds on the top of the bread is real bonus. Love to start a day with this kind of bread.
Julie | Bunsen Burner Bakery
I’m laughing at the idea of using Raisin Bran in the bread! As far as letting it cool for 2 hours – bread after 10 minutes has a very different texture than bread after 2 hours. If the bread isn’t completely cooled to room temperature, the bread has a much higher moisture content and is very hard to slice. You can, of course, rip off chunks of bread, but the texture is still different than cooled bread.
Molly Kumar
I love Breads and can be called the bread monster of the house 😉 . Your Country Dakota bread looks absolutely scrumptious. The addition of all those crunchy nuts + seeds on top makes it extra yummm.
Khadija
It has been a dream of mine to bake my own 7 grain bread! Am saving this recipe thank you
Kallee
Homemade bread is so delicious. It tastes amazing and smells incredible as it bakes. This recipe looks amazing!
Lisa
I love breads like this with nuts and seeds in it! My kids call it birdseed bread! This looks seriously delicious and would be fantastic with a bowl of steaming hot soup! And slathering of the butter is a must with homemade bread!!!
Celebrating Sweets
Homemade bread is one of my favorite foods ever! This looks fantastic! I love everything about it!
linda spiker
What a beautiful loaf! I absolutely love bread, and think this recipe rocks! Those seeds and grains sound wonderful. I’ve pinned this recipe for later.
Platter Talk
I’m pretty sorry this bread would get ripped off in a few chunks before completely cooled…just saying. Looks incredible.!
Suchi @elegantmeraki
You are right homemade bread is magically!! love the country style no pan needed recipe.
Ribas with Love
Your 7-grain (well, 5-grain haha) bread looks AMAZING! I honestly wish I could reach into the screen a grab a slice. Preferably the slice with butter 🙂 I love baking bread, it is one of the most satisfying thing EVER, but don’t end up baking as often as I would like. Nicely done!
Sandhya Ramakrishnan
Absolutely love fresh home made breads and nothing can come closer to its flavor. I have Bob’s red mill 10 grain hot cereal and this will be a lovely bake with it. Love your rustic shape of the bread and those slices slathered with butter will make my day!
kimscravings
I love making homemade bread, but don’t do it near enough!! I need to try your delicious looking recipe soon!
Homemade Food Junkie
I love baking homemade bread. This recipe is a must make! Kudos Dan!
Jolina
I love this! And the video too. I’ve been trying to get better with bread making and you bet this will go into my to-do list. And no, I don’t think I can wait for 2 hours before slicing into that beauty lol!
Kallee
I love all the different grains in it. It looks delicious. There is nothing like homemade bread!
foodyschmoody
OMG, I saw this bread in your dipping oil post the other day and meant to come find it and then I got side tracked. I’m so glad I happened to stumble across it today. Love the sound of this.