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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!
We appreciate your support
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.
Jamie H
I need to figure out how to get my husband wanting to make bread! I love homemade bread, but I just don’t love making it. But I’ll make an exception for this recipe and try it out 😉 All those seeds look fabulous!
Mommy Engineering
This looks delicious! I love making bread at home but mine doesn’t turn out quite as nice as this! I can’t wait to try it! Maybe I’ll get lucky this time! LOL
Diane (@MamalDiane)
It turned out amazing! We love multi grain bread. We have a specialty grocery that has a 12 grain bread that is out of this world. You did a wonderful job!
Emily
I have such a soft spot for bread, of any and all kinds! This looks delicious! I make bread sometimes and always love it so much, this recipe is a great one for me to try. Thank you!
Joanne Ciardullo
Sorry but what is 7 grain hot cereal and what are pepitas?
Debi
Joanne, 7 grain hot cereal mix is like oatmeal, with wheat, rye, barley, oats, and other grains. Like I said in the post, “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 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 grins mixed in; it’s not a cereal mix like raisin bran or Chex or something.” And, Pepitas are pumpkin seeds without the shell. They are the pretty green seeds you see on the top of the bread. Hope that helps.
Joanne Ciardullo
Just made this bread and it’s amazing. Only thing I did different was that I divided it into 2 loaves instead of one big one. Baked just fine at same temperature and time. Love it
Gary Barnett
I baked this bread a couple of years ago and since lost the recipe. Just like baking any other loaf of bread except this one has seeds in it. For those reluctant to try baking bread just try a loaf w/o all the expensive seeds in it, then move up to this loaf. It’s easy, if an old man like me can do it so can you.
Alison Kuhn
Question we only have 5 grain hot cereal available in my area. Did you grind this first before using 5 grain?
Debi
Alison, 5 grain cereal will work just fine. I often can only get 5 grain. No, you don’t have to grind the cereal first. Just use it as is.
Diana Ru
Hello good day,
I find it charming and tempting to make this bread in its traditional version but I have a doubt, there is a way to do it with another type of flour such as rice, chickpea, tapioca, etc., because in my home my children have no problem with gluten. But I have been for a year or so, and I am having to learn to bake gluten-free with other alternative flours to wheat. If you can, could you explain to me how and what is more convenient? Thank you very much, greetings from Mexico.
Diana Ru
Debi
Diana, I’ve never made this bread with gluten free flours. If you try it, certainly, let me know how it goes. I have a gluten free bread recipe here https://lifecurrentsblog.com/gluten-free-baking-baked-goods/ with lots of information of gluten free.
Diana Ru
Debbie, I really appreciate the league, I’m going to check it out, and if I’m going to try to make your recipe with chickpea flour and amaranth, and xanatana gum, I’ll tell you about the result and send photo.
Rose
Could you use muesli instead of 7 grain hot cereal mix?
Debi
Rose, yes, you absolutely can use muesli instead of 7 grain cereal mix. I often can’t find the 7 grain, so I end up using 5 grain, and muesli will work just the same. Happy baking!
Amber
Do you have nutritional values for this recipe?
Debi
Amber, I have added the calculations. Some of them are approximate, based on close ingredients, and actual amounts my vary based on the brands used. Thanks for letting me know I need to add them.
Karen
The reason you don’t cut into freshly baked bread is because cutting into it changes the structure and bread will become “gummy”. It’s probably ok after an hour minimum but never after just ten minutes!
Diane goffard
Would like a traditional sandwich loaf pan style loaf. How would I accomplish this—proportion wise?
Debi
Diane, I’ve not made this bread in a loaf pan. It is a nice bread to make free form. So, I can only give general guidelines.
Partly proportions of dough to loaf pan will depend on the size of your pan. The vast majority of loaf pans are made in pans of two basic sizes: 9 x 5-inch, or 8 & ½ x 4 & ½-inches. Both of these size pans are generally 2 & ½-inches tall.
The larger of the two, a 9×5 inch pan should be about what you’ll want.
Often the bread is allowed to rise in a loaf pan, so you’ll probably want to fill the pan about half way to 2/3 of the way full with the dough before rising. Many recipes baked in loaf pans will recommend baking once the dough has reached 1” over the lip of the pan. The bread will expand as it bakes.
In general, I think the best approach when baking a recipe is that you should find a recipe that uses the specific ingredients and instructions you have available to you rather than trying to make the recipe into something else.
As you may know, baking is a science, and making any changes can affect the final dish. Always proceed with caution when making substitutions.
I hope some of these tips help, and please, let me know if you try it. I’d love to hear.