Sunny Whole Grain Bread to brighten your day
Because some recent health issues, I have been trying to cut bread out of my diet. It's not that I'm not allowed to eat bread, I am supposed to eat less. Bread has always been my absolute favorite thing to eat, especially slathered in butter.
Just like when I quit smoking, I couldn't just scale back, I just had to quit. I had to just stop eating bread. You see, I didn't just like to eat bread. I loved to eat bread. I loved to eat bread slathered in butter. And, I was not choosy in the kinds of bread I ate, so high sugar white flour breads were just as good to me as a whole grain loaf.
But now, I feel like I can introduce healthy options and eat them less often. Like a treat.
I'm starting with this whole grain bread.
My friend, Lori, a fellow baker and a lover of fine ingredients, recently sent me some sprouted wheat flour. Well, I had to try it out. So while I list sprouted wheat flout as one of the ingredients, a whole wheat flour would work in this recipe also. The texture remains similar, but the flavor is a bit different.
As I often say, once you get the recipe down, play around with it a little. You might come up with something you like even better. Let me know what you come up with.
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| Ready to knead |
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| Resting |
Sunny Whole Grain Bread
1 loaf
2 1/4 teaspoons (one packet) of yeast
2 tablespoons of real maple syrup or honey
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of flaxseed meal
2 cups of sprouted wheat flour
1 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons of sunflower seeds
2 tablespoons of rolled oats
- Combine the warm water, the yeast, the maple syrup (or honey), salt, flaxseed and the flours in a large bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer).
- Stir it up. Doing it by hand counts as your arm workout for the week, but if you're using a mixer, you need only beat the mixture for about a minute at medium speed. You'll end up with a rough -- a bit sticky -- dough.
- Put the dough out onto the counter and knead it while mixing in as much flour (about 1/4 cup at a time) as it takes to make the dough not sticky.Put the dough into a lightly greased bowl. Cover it and let it rise for 3 hours.
- At the end of the rise, use your fingers to poke a hole in the dough and pour in the sunflower seeds and the oats.
- Turn it out on to a floured surface and knead it until it feels elastic and the seeds and oats are incorporated. Form it into a loaf.
- Put it into a lightly greased bowl or proofing basket and sift a bit of flour over it to keep it moist and cover it. Let the loaf rest for an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 425°F when there are about 15 minutes left in the resting time.
- Place a metal pan on the bottom shelf of the oven and have a cup of water ready.
- When the oven is ready (reaches 425°), make several slashes -- about 1/2 inch deep -- in the top of the loaf.
- Put the loaf on the middle rack and pour water into the pan on the bottom shelf. Don't be afraid if it bubbles and steam.
- Bake for 25 minutes, until it is a beautiful golden color and it has risen a bit.
- When you've taken the bread out, let it rest atop the stove or counter for five minutes, then transfer it to a cooling rack.
- Let it cool completely before slicing it.
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