Baking Great Bread at HomeA Dutch Oven Boule with Cracked Wheat, Rye, Flax, and Sunflower
IntermediateRustic Multigrain CountryLoaf
by Henry Hunter
The weekend loaf with grain you can see
Fermentation
12 to 14 hours for the poolish, then 3 to 4 hours bulk
Bake Time
45 to 50 minutes
Yield
One 1400g boule, about 16 thick slices
- Tested by Henry Hunter
- Last updated July 30, 2026
- Yields One 1400g boule, about 16 thick slices
- 5 equipment items
Perfection is not required
"Perfection is not required. Progress is."— Henry Hunter
By Henry Hunter Jr., founder of Crust & Crumb Academy and Baking Great Bread at Home.
About HenryAuthentic Flavor
This is the loaf I make on a Friday night for a Saturday morning, back when I was selling at markets and needed something that looked like it took all week. It didn't. Two bowls of grain sitting on the counter overnight and a poolish next to them, and Saturday morning is just mixing and waiting. The cracked wheat is what people notice first, in the crust and on the tongue, and it's the reason this loaf outsold everything else on my table.
Equipment Needed
Ingredients
The Poolish (Night Before)
Equal weights of flour and water with a pinch of yeast, left out overnight. This is where the flavor comes from, and it costs you two minutes of work.
The Hot Soaker (Night Before)
Cracked wheat is the thirstiest thing in this loaf. Boiling water takes it from tooth-breaking to tender, and it drinks about 225% of its own weight doing it.
The Cold Soaker (Night Before)
Flax and sunflower go in cool water, not boiling. Boiling water would cook the oils and dull the flavor, and neither seed has enough starch to gain anything from the heat.
The Final Dough
Thirty percent whole grain flour on top of everything already in the soakers. Enough to taste, not so much that the loaf turns into a paperweight.
The Crust
Optional. A wet skin picks up seeds and gives you something to look at.
Pro Tip
Cracked wheat and bulgur are not the same thing, but they work the same here. Bulgur is parboiled, so it softens faster and a little more evenly. Cracked wheat is raw and keeps more bite. Either one needs boiling water and a full night. Coarse bulgur is the one to reach for if you want the grain to stay noticeable in the finished slice.
Night Before
Build the Poolish
A wet, sleepy preferment at 100% hydration with almost no yeast in it. The is doing 12 hours of flavor work while you sleep, and it's the reason this loaf tastes like more than flour and salt.
Click each step to mark complete
Whisk It Together
Whisk the flour, water, and the tiny amount of yeast together until it looks like thick pancake batter with no lumps.
Ferment Overnight
Cover loosely and leave it at room temperature for 12 to 14 hours. It's ready when the surface is domed and bubbled and just beginning to sink in the middle. That slight collapse is the signal, not a problem.
⏱ Wait Time
12 to 14 hours
Pro Tip
An eighth of a teaspoon really is the whole amount of yeast. Measuring that little is awkward, so here's the workaround: stir ¼ teaspoon of yeast into 2 tablespoons of the poolish water, then use half of that liquid and pour the rest out. More accurate than trying to split a dry pinch.
Night Before
Build Both Soakers
Two soakers, two temperatures, on purpose. Starchy cracked grain gets boiling water. Oily seeds get cool water. Getting this backwards is the most common mistake in multigrain baking.
Click each step to mark complete
Hot Soaker for the Cracked Wheat
Put the cracked wheat and salt in a heatproof bowl and pour the boiling water over it. Stir well, cover, and leave it on the counter overnight. It should absorb nearly all the water and swell to about three times its dry volume.
Cold Soaker for the Seeds
In a second bowl, stir the flaxseed and sunflower seeds into the cool water. Cover and leave it out overnight. The flax will turn the water into a loose gel. That gel is supposed to happen and it goes into the dough with the seeds.
Pro Tip
Both soaker waters are calculated to be absorbed almost exactly, so there's no free water to subtract from the dough. That's why the final dough water stays at 270g no matter what. If you decide to swap grains, use the absorption table below to figure out the new water and adjust the dough water by the difference.
Boiling water for starch
German bakers call this a Bruehstueck, a scalded piece. Boiling water gelatinizes starch, which softens coarse grain, brings out its natural sweetness, and lets it hold water through the bake. Cracked wheat proves the point: it takes 178% of its weight in cool water and 225% in boiling. Rye chops jump from 65% to 154%. Coarse cornmeal goes from 58% to 173%.
Cool water for oil
A Quellstueck, a soaked piece. Flax and sunflower are mostly oil and protein with little starch to gelatinize, so boiling water gains them almost nothing. Sunflower takes 80% of its weight either way. Flax moves from 130% cool to 136% boiling. Cool water also leaves the aroma and the oils intact instead of cooking them flat.
The cost of getting it backwards
Boiling water denatures protein along with gelatinizing starch. On a cracked grain that costs you nothing, because it wasn't building gluten. Pour boiling water over finely milled flour or over a large share of your total flour and you weaken the crumb. That's why the hot soaker in this recipe holds only the cracked wheat.
The Takeaway
Starchy and coarse gets boiling water. Oily and whole gets cool water. Get that one distinction right and multigrain stops being guesswork.
Morning, Day 2
Mix the Dough
The poolish and the hot soaker go in now. The seeds wait. Seeds and gluten are working against each other, so the less time they spend in the mix, the more structure you keep.
Click each step to mark complete
Combine Flours, Water, and Poolish
In a large bowl, mix the bread flour, whole wheat, rye, water, the whole poolish, and the whole hot soaker until there's no dry flour anywhere. Skip the salt, the yeast, and the seeds for now. The dough will be sticky and shapeless.
Rest 40 Minutes
Cover and rest. This is where the whole wheat and rye bran soften and the starts organizing itself with no work from you. Forty minutes here saves you ten minutes of kneading later.
Add Salt and Yeast
Sprinkle the salt and yeast over the dough and work them in by pinching and folding for about 2 minutes, until you can't feel any grit. The dough will tighten up as the salt goes to work.
Pro Tip
Aim for a dough temperature of 78F (26C) after mixing. Adjust the final water temperature up or down to get there. If your poolish sat somewhere cool overnight, use water at 90F (32C) instead of 85F.
Precise Timers
Use these interactive timers to track your stages.
Autolyse Rest
Day 2, Late Morning
Folds and Bulk Fermentation
Three sets of folds, seeds added at the second one. at this hydration wants structure built in stages rather than all at once.
Click each step to mark complete
First Set of Folds
Thirty minutes after the salt goes in, wet your hand and give it a set of . Lift one side up and over the center, turn the bowl a quarter, repeat four times. The dough will feel loose. That's normal at this stage.
Second Set, Add the Seeds
Thirty minutes later, pour the whole seed soaker, gel and all, right on top of the dough. Fold the dough over it. It will feel like the gel is sliding around and refusing to mix in. Leave it. Do not force it or knead it in, because that shears the gluten you just built.
Third Set of Folds
Thirty minutes after that, fold again. By now the seeds will be evenly distributed and the gel will have disappeared into the dough. This is where the dough finally starts holding a shape and feeling strong.
Finish the Bulk
Cover and leave it alone for another 1½ to 2 hours. Total bulk runs 3 to 4 hours at 76F to 78F (24C to 26C). Look for the dough to grow by about 70%, feel puffy and alive, and show a jiggle when you shake the container.
⏱ Wait Time
3 to 4 hours
Pro Tip
If you'd rather use than stretch and fold, go ahead. Wet both hands, lift the dough from the middle, let the ends fall under themselves, and rotate. Coil folds are gentler on a seeded dough and I use them more often than not.
Grain is not flour
A gluten network traps gas in thin elastic walls. A piece of cracked wheat or a sunflower seed can't do that. Every gram of grain you add is a gram that holds nothing and physically interrupts the walls around it. That's why a 30% grain loaf never rises as tall as a white loaf, no matter how well you ferment it.
So build strength somewhere else
Three things get the height back. Bread flour for the base, because higher protein means stronger walls. Folds instead of kneading, because folding builds structure without shearing the dough against the grain. And soaked grain instead of dry, because dry grain robs water from the gluten and stiffens it right when it needs to stretch.
Judge the loaf on the right terms
A rustic multigrain loaf that rises 70% in bulk and gains a decent oven spring is a success. If you're measuring it against a white boule you'll be disappointed every time. What you traded height for is flavor, keeping quality, and a crumb that actually eats like bread instead of air.
The Takeaway
You can't make grain hold gas. You can make the gluten around it strong enough to carry the load.
Precise Timers
Use these interactive timers to track your stages.
Fold 1
Fold 2, Add Seeds
Fold 3
Finish Bulk
Day 2, Afternoon
Pre-shape and Shape
Two stages with a rest between them. On a seeded dough at this hydration, skipping the pre-shape means fighting the dough during the final shape and losing.
Click each step to mark complete
Pre-shape
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter. Using a bench scraper and one wet hand, pull the edges into the center to make a loose round. Leave it uncovered for 20 to 30 minutes to relax.
Final Shape
Flip the round over. Fold the bottom third up, the sides in, then roll it away from you into a tight ball, using the counter's friction to build tension across the top. Cup your hands around the base and drag it in a small circle to seal the bottom.
Coat and Basket
If you're doing a seed crust, mist the top with water and roll the loaf through the mixed seeds. Set it seam side up in a floured banneton or a towel-lined bowl.
Pro Tip
Rice flour in the banneton, not wheat flour. Rice flour doesn't absorb water and doesn't turn to paste, so a wet grain dough releases cleanly instead of tearing on its way out of the basket.
Shaping
Shaping Options
One big boule is the default because it holds moisture best and gives you the most dramatic crumb. Two smaller loaves bake faster and fit smaller pots.
One Large Boule (Recommended)
About 1400g of dough in a 5 to 6 quart Dutch oven. Thick slices, a proper crust, and it stays good for three days.
RecommendedClick each step to mark complete
Pre-shape
Loose round, rest uncovered 20 to 30 minutes.
Shape Tight
Fold bottom up, sides in, roll away from you, then drag in a circle to seal.
Basket
Seam side up in a rice-floured banneton.
Two Batards
Two 700g oval loaves. Better crust-to-crumb ratio and a shape that slices well for sandwiches. Needs two bakes in one pot, or a baking stone with steam.
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Divide
Two pieces of about 700g each.
Shape
Pat to a rectangle, fold in thirds like a letter, then roll from the top down, sealing the seam with your thumbs.
Bake
Same temperatures, but cut the covered bake to 18 minutes and the uncovered to 18 to 20.
One Pan Loaf
If you want the flavor of this dough in a sliceable sandwich shape. About 1000g goes in a 9 by 5 pan and the remaining 410g bakes as a small free-form round alongside it.
Click each step to mark complete
Divide
One 1000g piece for the pan, then one 410g piece as a small free-form boule.
Shape
Roll the big piece tightly from the short edge and set it seam side down in a greased pan.
Bake
375F (190C) uncovered for 45 to 50 minutes, to 205F (96C) internal.
Proof Test: Press the side with a floured fingertip. The dent should fill back in slowly and stop just short of level. If it springs back immediately, wait. If the dent stays and the loaf sighs, get it in the oven right now.
Day 2, Afternoon or Overnight
Final Proof, Warm or Cold
Two ways to finish. Same day if you want bread tonight, cold overnight if you want better flavor and an easier score.
Click each step to mark complete
Same Day
Cover and proof at room temperature for 45 to 60 minutes, until the loaf has grown by about half and feels airy when you press it. Bake as soon as it gets there.
Or Overnight Cold
Cover the basket and refrigerate for 10 to 14 hours, then bake straight from cold. This is the version I'd pick. The dough firms up, the flavor gets deeper, and a chilled skin takes a scoring cut cleanly instead of dragging.
Check It
Use the . Press the side gently with a floured finger. The dent should come back slowly and not quite all the way. Cold dough always reads firmer than it is, so with the overnight version trust the volume more than the poke.
⏱ Wait Time
1 hour warm, or overnight cold
Pro Tip
Start preheating the Dutch oven 45 minutes before you plan to bake. A cast iron pot needs that long to actually reach temperature all the way through, and an underheated pot is the reason most home boules come out pale and flat.
Precise Timers
Use these interactive timers to track your stages.
Warm Final Proof
Day 2 or Day 3
Bake and Cool
Hot and covered first to trap steam, then uncovered to build crust and color. This is where the loaf earns its ear.
Step by Step
Preheat the Pot
Put the Dutch oven with its lid on into a cold oven and heat to 480F (250C). Give it a full 45 minutes at temperature.
Score and Load
Turn the loaf out onto parchment, seam side down. Score it with a confident stroke about ½ inch deep, either one long curve or a simple cross. Lift the parchment and lower the whole thing into the hot pot. Lid on.
Covered Bake
Drop the oven to 450F (230C) and bake covered for 22 minutes. Don't peek. All the steam you need is coming out of the dough and staying under that lid.
Uncovered Bake
Pull the lid and bake another 22 to 27 minutes until the crust is deep brown and the seeds on top have toasted. A pale crust means an underdeveloped flavor, so let it go darker than feels comfortable.
Check Internal Temperature
Done is 205F to 210F (96C to 99C) in the center. A grain loaf this wet needs the top of that range. Pulling it at 200F leaves you with a damp center.
Cool Completely
Onto a wire rack, and leave it alone for at least 3 hours. Cutting into a hot high-hydration loaf gives you a gummy, pasty crumb, and it's not the recipe's fault. Four hours is better.
Preheat Dutch Oven
Covered Bake
Uncovered Bake
Cool
You'll hear the crust crackle and sing as it cools. That's water leaving the crust and the crust contracting around it. It's the best sound in baking and it means you baked it long enough.
Baking Methods
The most reliable steam a home oven can produce, because the dough's own moisture gets trapped under the lid.
Equipment: 5 to 6 quart Dutch oven with lid, parchment paper
Preheat
Pot and lid into a cold oven, heat to 480F (250C), hold 45 minutes.
Load
Score the loaf and lower it in on parchment. Lid on.
Covered
Drop to 450F (230C) and bake covered 22 minutes.
Uncovered
Lid off, bake 22 to 27 minutes to a deep brown crust.
Verify
Pull at 205F to 210F (96C to 99C). Cool on a rack at least 3 hours.
"Take this one darker than you think you should. Grain and rye both need real heat and real color to taste like anything, and a pale multigrain crust is a flat multigrain crust."
Nutrition Facts
Per 1 slice (about 77g) • 16 servings per recipe
* Values are estimates based on standard ingredients; actual values vary by brands and portion size.
Storage
Room Temperature
2 to 3 days cut side down on a board, or in a paper bag. Plastic will soften the crust, so only bag it in plastic once you've given up on the crust.
Refrigerated
Skip the fridge. Bread goes stale faster at refrigerator temperature than it does on the counter.
Frozen
Up to 3 months. Freeze whole if you plan to refresh it, or sliced if you plan to toast it. Press the air out of the bag either way.
Refresh
Run the whole loaf under the tap for a second, then bake at 400F (205C) for 10 to 12 minutes. It comes back close to fresh.
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Troubleshooting
Baker's Notes
Common questions and solutions for perfect results
If you're serious about scoring, you need the right blade in your hand. Wire Monkey makes handcrafted bread lames from black walnut — built to last, balanced in the hand, and sharp enough to glide through cold dough cleanly every single time. No dragging, no hesitation marks. Just a clean cut.
Wire Monkey Handcrafted Bread Lames
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