Michaelmas Harvest Bread Recipe

September 29 is Michaelmas—pronounced mik′əl məs—the feast of St. Michael. Today at Copywriters’ Kitchen you’ll find the air warm and thick with the smell of yeasty, freshly baked bread: Every year at this time I bake Michaelmas Harvest Bread, a multigrain loaf packed with the season’s bounty of whole grains.

The baker’s goal with this bread is to include as many different whole grains as possible. The loaf is dense, slightly winey flavored and moist because you pre-cook some of the whole grains—including rice—and add a touch of flowery honey.

Michaelmas Harvest Bread is the perfect rib-sticking accompaniment to hearty Fall and Winter soups and stews.

I started making this bread 15 years ago when my now college-aged son was in Kindergarten at a Waldorf school. Waldorf educators believe children benefit from a rhythmical daily life—comforting routines, regular meals, naps and bedtime and the rituals of seasonal holidays.

Michaelmas melds saintly and seasonal celebrations

As for Medieval Europeans, St. Michael’s Day is an important holiday at Waldorf schools. This “quarter day” marks the turn of the season from summer to fall.

Like many orthodox religious holidays, Michaelmas is an ecclesiastical festival layered over an earlier earth-centered “pagan” celebration.

The Archangel Michael is revered in Christian, Jewish and Islamic tradition. He is often depicted as a knight or warrior—G-d’s champion. In apocalyptic literature St. Michael is seen leading a holy army in a pivotal battle between dark and light.

The Archangel is most frequently depicted upheld sword in hand, slaying a dragon. He’s also portrayed holding a set of scales or balances: Folkloric tradition tells us it is St. Michael who will weigh souls at the end of days.

St. Michael’s scales also remind us of a moment of balance—the equinox—a split-second when day and night are the same length. The Archangel is relied on as a spiritual warrior to guide and strengthen as winter’s darkness and cold approach.

Not so surprising then that early church leaders placed the feast of St. Michael on September 29, near—and sometimes falling directly on—the Autumnal Equinox.

Michaelmas bread: a mélange of whole grain goodness

This harvest festival bread is open to your culinary interpretation. The only hard and fast rule is that you try to include as many grains as possible and use honey as your sweetener.

How does homemade bread fit into Copywriter’s Kitchen’s ethos of “fast frugal cooking?” Well, it is frugal—and for me it’s fast because I use a bread machine.

While my kitchen is devoid of fancy appliances and cooking gadgets, I make an exception for the bread machine. If you love home-baked bread—and hate kneading—I urge you to think about buying one of these handy machines.

Bread machines are one of those items that show up frequently at flea markets and garage sales—as did my “new” bread machine last weekend. I was thrilled to replace my old faithful, but alas broken, bread machine with a used rather than brand new model.

By the way, I don’t actually bake bread in a bread machine—because I don’t like the way the machine shapes the loaves nor the machine-baked crust’s consistency.

I let the machine chug away doing the heavy mixing, kneading and rising while I get the slacker’s glory of shaping, baking and claiming credit for a home-baked loaf.

Michaelmas Harvest Bread Recipe

1/4 cup wild rice
1/4 cup steel cut oats
1/4 cup pearl barley
1/4 cup wheat berries
(Or 1 cup mixed whole grain of your choice)
5 cups water
1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup ground flax
1/4 cup oat bran
1 heaping teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons safflower or other oil
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons yeast

1. At least an hour in advance of mixing the bread dough, prepare the whole grains: Pour one cup of whole grains—I used rice, steel cut oats, pearl barley and wheat berries— into a saucepan. Add 4 cups water, cover pan and bring to a boil. Reduce to low flame and simmer grains for 45 minutes or until water is absorbed. You may speed cooking time by pre-soaking the grains over night. These cooked grains make a delicious Harvest Whole Grain Hot Cereal.
2. If using a bread machine, simply dump all dry ingredients into the bread machine baking pan, add oil, honey, salt, one cup of slightly cooled, cooked grains and the remaining one cup of water. Push the “dough” setting and go do something else for 45 minutes.
3. If making bread by hand, dissolve honey in 2 tablespoons of boiling water. Cool honey water until tepid, then sprinkle with yeast. Allow yeast to soften for about 3-5 minutes. Add one cup of slightly cooled, cooked grains, oil and honey and mix well with a wooden spoon. Stir in cornmeal, flax and oat bran—please note you may use these or any other whole grain flours or meals you choose—unbleached flour, whole wheat flour and salt. At some point the dough will become too stiff to stir and you will need to knead in the flour with your hands. When all ingredients are incorporated, flour a surface and knead the dough for 20-30 minutes—this is why I don’t hand-knead dough!! Shape dough into a round loaf. Grease a large bowl with butter or oil, put the dough into the bowl top-down and coat with butter. Turn the dough right side up, cover with a tea towel and set dough to rise in a warm place for 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in bulk. Punch down dough.
4. On a floured surface, knead dough for a minute or so. For Michaelmas I shape the dough into a round loaf.
5. Sprinkle corn meal on an ungreased cookie sheet or jelly roll pan.
6. Place loaf in the center of the cookie sheet. Using a sharp knife, cut a cross in the top of the loaf.
7. If you prefer an oblong loaf, shape dough into an oblong and place in a greased loaf pan.
8. Set loaf in a warm, draft-free place to rise until doubled in bulk.
9. Five minutes before ready to bake, preheat oven to 400 degrees.
10. Handling pan gingerly so you don’t disturb the raised bread, slide cookie sheet or loaf pan into oven.
11. Bake 5 minutes.
12. Turn down oven to 350 degrees and continue to bake bread for another 20 minutes.
13. Cool bread slightly before slicing. Serve with butter and jam, if desired.

Serves 8-10.