Muesli Bread Recipe: Dried Fruit, Nuts, and Whole Grains

Muesli bread is a hearty, peasant style loaf made with whole grains, dried fruit, and sunflower seeds. It is absolutely delicious toasted for breakfast.

Total time for the recipe to be finished.Total Time 4 hours hours 50 minutes minutes

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First published October 2016. Last updated April 9, 2025, for editorial improvements.

🗝️ Key takeaways

This hearty muesli bread is packed with sweet dried fruit, crunchy nuts, and chewy whole grains—every bite is a little breakfast moment. Toast it up with a swipe of butter and a dollop of apricot pineapple jam, and suddenly you’re the main character. I used raisins, apricots, and sunflower seeds, but you can mix and match whatever you’ve got. Pro tip: adding a bit of vital wheat gluten gives whole grain breads a taller rise and better texture—because we like our bread like we like our personalities… well-developed.

Muesli Bread Recipe Ingredients

We always called it harvest bread -- it's obsessively yummy as toast and makes incredible chicken salad sandwiches. If you'd like a wholesome bread like this but without the fruit try my Oatmeal bread.

You can change the dried fruit and nuts to fit your own tastes.

• Active dry yeast is what makes the bread rise and it's my go to yeast. If you prefer to use rapid rise yeast you can.
• Honey is the sweetener of choice here. Different types of honey will change the flavor slightly. Brown sugar or granulated sugar may be substituted.
• Bread flour has a lot of protein and it helps the structure of the bread, allowing it to rise properly.
• Vital wheat gluten adds more protein to the bread to help offset the weigh of the dried fruit and nuts.
• Whole wheat flour is used to add a rustic touch but you could use all bread flour if you like.
• Rolled oats are the old fashioned oats - don't substitute quick oats or instant oatmeal.
• Sunflower seeds are my favorite for this hearty loaf. You can use walnuts, pecans, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, or any kind of combination you like.
• Raisins and dried apricots are the fruit I prefer in this recipe because of the moisture content and flavors. Any kind of dried fruit will work as far as I know.
• Butter is added for richness and flavor. Use salted or unsalted - whichever you prefer.
• Kosher salt is my salt of choice. If you use table salt then you should cut the measurement by ¼.
• Egg is used to brush the top of the loaf before baking. You don't have to use it if you don't want to.

Try this Mexican Day of the Dead Bread next! It's delicious!

📖 Recipe

Multigrain Muesli Bread Recipe

4.89 from 17 votes

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Muesli bread is a hearty, peasant style loaf made with whole grains, dried fruit, and sunflower seeds. It is absolutely delicious toasted for breakfast.

Course Bread

Cuisine Amercian Heritage

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour

Resting/Rising Time: 3 hours hours 20 minutes minutes

Total Time: 4 hours hours 50 minutes minutes

Servings:24 slices

Calories:127

Author:Marye Audet-White

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 ¾ cups warm water, 105 F. to 110 degrees F.
• ▢ 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
• ▢ 2 tablespoons honey
• ▢ 2 cups bread flour
• ▢ ¼ cup vital wheat gluten
• ▢ 1-¾ cups whole wheat flour, or combination of whole wheat and other flours
• ▢ 1 cup sunflower seeds, shelled, roasted, and unsalted
• ▢ 1 cup raisins, currants, dried apricots, dried apples or a mixture of dried fruit
• ▢ ¼ cup melted unsalted butter
• ▢ 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• ▢ 1 egg, beaten to blend
• ▢ rolled oats for topping, if desired

Instructions

• Place warm water in a large bowl.
• Sprinkle yeast and then honey over the top and stir to dissolve.
• Gradually mix in 2 cups bread flour, the gluten, and 1 cup whole wheat flour ( or 1 cup of your mixed flours).
• Stir.
• Cover yeast mixture with tea towel and let stand 30 minutes.
• Stir shelled sunflower seeds, fruit, butter, and salt into yeast mixture.
• Gradually stir in enough remaining whole wheat flour to form soft dough.
• Knead dough on floured surface until smooth and elastic, adding more whole wheat flour if dough is sticky, about 10-15 minutes by hand or 6 minutes by mixer.
• Grease clean large bowl.
• Place dough in bowl, turning to coat completely.
• Cover with tea towel.
• Let rise in warm draft-free area until doubled and dough does not spring back when 2 fingers are pressed into side, 2 hours or so.
• Punch dough down.
• Let stand 10 minutes.
• Grease pans. Shape dough into desired shapes and place in pans.
• Cover with tea towel.
• Let loaf rise in warm draft-free area until almost doubled in volume, about 45 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• Brush top of loaf with egg and sprinkle rolled oats over the top, or dust with flour or cornmeal.
• Bake until golden brown, about 45 minutes to 1 hour., depending on the shape and size of your loaves.
• Cool bread slightly.
• Serve bread warm or at room temperature. Makes 1 or 2 loaves, depending on shape.

Notes

• Harvest bread makes great dinner rolls, too. 
• Bread recipes with fruit and nuts require a longer baking time than you may be used to because of the amount of dried fruit. The fruit releases moisture and the bread will be soggy if not cooked long enough. The benefit to that is that it will stay fresher longer, too.
• This multi-grain fruit and nut bread recipe is good made into an oblong loaf shape and sliced for sandwiches (try a chicken salad, or peanut butter) or made in a cloche or oval.
• It makes great French toast, too!
• Any grain combination of flour that you like is fine -- just maintain the total number of cups.
• Use at least half white bread flour or use at least ½ cup of vital wheat gluten to give the dough elasticity. I used white flour, whole wheat and (dry) oatmeal in this one..but have used soy, rye, bran, cracked wheat and other combinations in the past.
• Use a mixture of whatever kind of dried fruit you like but make sure that the pieces are similar in size. Dice dates and figs, for example, so that they are about the same size as the raisins in this recipe. Doing so will help to ensure even distribution of the fruit and a better texture overall.
• You may want to check out these tips for working with yeast breads.
• Harvest bread loaf will keep, tightly wrapped, for 2 days or so at room temperature - or freeze for longer storage.
•  
• This bread freezes well for up to three months.

You'll find more helpful tips and variations in the body of the post.

Nutrition Facts

Serving: 1slice | Calories: 127kcal | Carbohydrates: 20.2g | Protein: 4.2g | Fat: 3.4g | Saturated Fat: 1.4g | Cholesterol: 11.9mg | Sodium: 150.5mg | Potassium: 2mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 3.6g | Vitamin A: 100IU | Vitamin C: 0.8mg | Calcium: 10mg | Iron: 0.9mg

Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

This recipe has been tested several times. If you choose to use other ingredients, or change the technique in some way, the results may not be the same.

🥫 Storage

Store baked bread at room temperature in an airtight container or tightly wrapped in plastic wrap for about 2 days at most.

Wrap in plastic wrap, then aluminum foil, and freeze for longer storage - up to 3 months.

This bread is delicious but if you're looking for a good, plain sandwich bread then try the buttermilk bread. It's the most popular recipe on the blog!

💭 Tips for success

• You can use instant yeast if you want. Just add it right in with the flour.
• Muesli bread makes great dinner rolls, too. 
• Use these tips to help the bread rise.
• Dough enhancer helps bread rise as well as helps it stay fresh a bit longer.
• Bread recipes with fruit and nuts require a longer baking time than you may be used to because of the amount of dried fruit. The fruit releases moisture and the bread will be soggy if not cooked long enough. The benefit to that is that it will stay fresher longer, too.
• This multi-grain fruit and nut bread recipe is good made into an oblong loaf shape and sliced for sandwiches (try a chicken salad, or peanut butter) or made in a cloche or oval.
• It makes great French toast, too!
• Any grain combination of flour that you like is fine -- just maintain the total number of cups.
• Use at least half white bread flour or use at least ½ cup of vital wheat gluten to give the dough elasticity. I used white flour, whole wheat, and (dry) oatmeal in this one..but have used soy, rye, bran, cracked wheat, and other combinations in the past.
• Use a mixture of whatever kind of dried fruit you like but make sure that the pieces are similar in size. Dice dates and figs, for example so that they are about the same size as the raisins in this recipe. Doing so will help to ensure an even distribution of the fruit and a better texture overall.
• You may want to check out these tips for working with yeast breads.
• Muesli bread loaf will keep, tightly wrapped, for 2 days or so at room temperature - or freeze for longer storage.
• This bread freezes well for up to three months.

📚 Related recipes

I love this but it's only one of many bread recipes here on Restless Chipotle!

• 30 Minute Baguette is really 30 minutes from the time you add flour to the mixer to the time you take it out of the oven. It makes awesome garlic bread!
• Perfect white bread is a simple, old-fashioned loaf that your grandmother would be familiar with.
• Viennese Christmas bread is a whole wheat fruit and nut bread that's flavored with cardamom, glazed, and topped with pecans. It's so unique and delicious for Christmas brunch!
• Italian bread bowls are perfect for busy nights. Just ladle your soup or stew into the bread bowl and ... no dishes to wash!
• You might also want to try this easy English muffin bread.
• Crockpot cinnamon raisin bread is an easy, no-knead recipe.

🥄 Equipment

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Vital Wheat Gluten adds springiness to the muesli bread dough and helps it rise higher and lighter. I like Bob's Red Mill and like to buy yeast in huge packages because it's SO inexpensive that way. I pretty much only use Red Star. 

You'll also love this soft multigrain bread recipe. Perfect for sandwiches.

I'd made raisin bread and cinnamon bread before but never anything with whole grains.

It was the 1970s and let me tell you, whole grains were the ingredient of the hour. In the days before the AMA decided that fat was deadly to all people and eating an egg was suicidal wholesome was anything that contained whole grains.

You could make a chocolate chip cookie with whole grains and it would be touted as old-fashioned and wholesome.

We were the last of the Baby Boomers. We watched our parents sipping cocktails in their polyester designer clothing.

We'd been fed vegetables from a can, TV dinners, and squishy white bread. Rebellion against all of the trappings of the mid-century middle class meant that we shunned commercialism in everything.

Homesteading became a thing. Tiger Beat and 17 Magazine were tossed aside in favor of Mother Earth News. We hand-sewed cotton patchwork maxi skirts, learned to knit, and made bread by the bucketful. The Little House on the Prairie series of books was our Bible.

The 1960s were actually the last decade of innocently eating food without thinking about fat, cholesterol, carbs, or sugars, in my opinion. If you were a few pounds overweight you went to Weight Watchers for a few months and got back in shape. Easy-peasy.

Thanks, AMA... we have a much healthier attitude about food and our bodies now! (If you don't recognize it THAT was sarcasm.)

Be careful, this muesli bread is slightly addictive. If you're looking for a great breakfast bread try this old-fashioned homemade honey bun recipe.