Accidentally Great Multi-Grain Bread

This all started because Russell asked me for my standard whole wheat bread recipe. Here it is:

Whole Wheat Bread

3 cups whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons gluten flour
2 teaspoons honey
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup buttermilk
1 cup water
1 pkg. dry yeast

Mix and rise in bread machine on dough cycle. Shape loaf, let rise ½ hour. Bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes.

***

This reminded me to make bread, since we were eating dry crusts of frozen leftover loaves at this point in our hectic week.

As I watched the bread mixing in the first stage, it seemed way too dry, so I added water until it seemed right. I went away until the bread machine beeped. I looked in--the dough was pasty and wet, a puddle of dough, really. I added some rolled oats and coarse corn meal to take up the excess moisture, and restarted the cycle. I went away again, and returned to find a slightly less sodden pile of dough in the bottom of the bread pan. Then the light bulb went off: I had forgotten the yeast. So I threw the dry yeast directly on top of the dough and set the machine for a third cycle and went away.

The dough became beautiful, rose with exuberance, and baked to a lovely loaf. By the way, I now usually use just a quarter teaspoon of sugar instead of the honey, so that I can bake the loaf in a hotter oven for a longer time. It develops more flavor that way.