After finishing off the Artisan Whole Wheat Bread dough last night, we were in need of another loaf of healthy and nutritious bread. (Because one should always have healthy and nutritious bread on hand. That’s what I’m telling myself anyway.)
Sis and I stocked up on a bunch of healthy bread-making ingredients when we visited Bob’s Red Mill this weekend: yeast, wheat germ, seeds, white wheat flour and 10-grain hot cereal mix. I have earmarked several recipes in the Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day cookbook but the first one I wanted to try was an oat and seed bread.
Bread is one of my favorite food groups. It makes a great snack when you’re inexplicably hungry at 9 pm. Or between meals. Or when you just want something to munch on any old time of the day. It’s awesome in grilled cheese or as French toast. I love making homemade croutons out of old bread. And of course I can’t forget that bread plays a starring role in avocado toast.
When it comes to bread dough, it’s versatile as well. You can use bread dough to make a pizza crust or pita bread. Or cheesy bready appetizers. So basically it’s in your best interest to always have the ingredients to make homemade bread on hand.
When it comes to making homemade, no-knead, artisan bread recipes from the Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day cookbook, the recipes are intended to yield four small loaves. The bread can usually be kept in your fridge for several days (and up to 2 weeks for the master bread recipe). However, I’ve learned that if you use half a recipe, you can yield one large sandwich loaf of bread which is exactly what this recipe makes.
ingredients.
- 1 c. whole wheat flour (I used a mixture of white whole wheat and reg.)
- 1 ½ c. all-purpose flour
- ¾ c. rolled oats
- 1 T. ground golden flaxseed
- 6 T. pumpkin seeds + more for garnish
- 6 T. sunflower seeds + more for garnish
- 2 T. sesame seeds + more for garnish
- 1 packet (2 ¼ tsp.) instant yeast
- ½ T. kosher salt
- 2 T. vital wheat gluten
- 1 ½ c. lukewarm water
- ¼ c. honey (can use agave syrup or barley malt syrup)
- 2 T. oil (I used olive oil but a “neutral” oil is suggested)
directions.
- Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Combine the liquid ingredients and pour into the dry ingredients. Mix until dough is formed. No need to kneed.
- Loosely cover the container and allow dough to rise for 2 hours or until the dough flattens on top. This will honestly depend a lot on where you live and the time of year.
- Refrigerate for at least 3 hours, overnight is preferred.
- When ready to bake, dust the dough with flour and tuck the ends of the dough around and under to form a ball. Shape the ball into an oval and place in a large bread pan greased with cooking spray. Allow the dough to rest 90 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees for 30 minutes with a pizza stone in the oven (middle rack) and a roasting pan down a rack or two. Right before baking, brush the dough with water and scatter seeds across the top. Using a bread knife, slash the dough with the knife three or four times.
- Place the bread pan on the pizza stone. Add 1 or 2 cups of hot tap water to the roasting pan and close the door.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until brown. (I baked mine 30.)
- Let cool completely before serving – if you can…
I personally find it impossible not to eat warm bread out of the oven. Is anyone with me on this one? Though it’s recommended in the book to let the bread cool completely before cutting, I find you can still cut it when it’s warm. Just make sure it’s cool enough to cut so you don’t burn yourself. I do let it cool down significantly before cutting into it.
My issue with cutting into warm bread is that the doing so can impact the shape/structure of the bread due to the pressure your hands and the knife apply to the warm, pliable loaf. If you don’t care what your bread looks like, go ahead and cut away when the loaf is still warm.
Recipe rating:
Food Snob 