Whole Wheat Seed Bread

My idea of the closest thing to heaven is fresh baked bread, sharp cheese and a glass of red wine. Luckily baking bread on the boat has been a pleasant go to on cool days along the ICW, a success when I served it at a sundowner in Cuba and a quick way to please my captain. I wanted to share my new favourite bread recipe that is full of flavour, easy to make and delicious. BTW the recipe isn’t long I am just wordy. As with any new task it may take some time, but if you are accustom to making bread you can whip this up in no time.  

Whole Wheat Seed Bread

Makes Two Loaves

Combine all the seeds in a small bowl

1 tablespoon caraway seeds 

1 tablespoon fennel seeds

1 tablespoon flax seeds

1 tablespoon poppy seeds

1 tablespoon quick cooking rolled oats

1 tablespoon raw pumpkin seeds

1 tablespoon raw sunflower seeds

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Ok, so you don’t have all these or you have something else, its all good, use what you have. 

Set aside 2 tablespoons of the mixture to top the bread

Scald milk add the quinoa and oats

1 1/4 cups milk

1/4 cup quinoa or bulgur

1/4 cup quick cooking rolled oats

Let stand, until your yeast is ready and it is room temp

Combine the water, honey. Sprinkle the yeast over top and let stand 10 minutes. Stir the yeast until dissolved

1/4 cup warm water

1/4 teaspoon honey or sugar

2 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast

Transfer the milk mixture to a large bowl, add yeast mixture and seeds minus 2 tablespoons for topping. 

Add:

1 beaten egg

2 cups whole wheat flour

1/4 cup coconut oil, really any oil will do or butter I just like coconut oil 

1/4 cup molasses, I love the flavour of molasses in bread and tend to be generous in my measure but honey or sugar will work as well

1/4 cup strong coffee or bland old tasting water

Now beat the heck out of this. If you have an inverter plug in your mixer turn on your

favourite 70’s song and whip it good, whip it real good. 

Add: 

2 cups plus of all purpose flour until a soft dough forms and you can turn it unto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. 

The trick to good bread is breaking down the gluten. You cannot screw up bread. The more you beat, bang, knead bread the better it will be. When my children were young I would wash there little hands, pull up a chair and let them rip, bang and tear to their hearts content. Now when I’m home I would put it in my mixer and go make a bed. On the boat I knead and knead a lot. 

Place the dough in a greased bowl, again I use coconut oil, cover with parchment or greased waxed paper and a clean tea towel and let rest about an hour until doubled in bulk. 

When it has doubled punch dough down and knead for about one minute. Divide into 2 portions. Shape each portion into 8” rounds. Place onto a greased cookie sheet. Cover with your parchment and let stand about 30 minutes or until almost doubled. 

Whisk:

1 egg 

1 tsp water 

If you don’t want to waste an egg I have used milk. Brush over loaves. Score the top of the bread with a sharp knife and sprinkle with remaining seeds. 

Bake 350 F 30 minutes until brown and hollow sounding. Cool on a wire rack. 

In the propane oven on the boat I find I can’t put both loaves in at once so I use 2 sheets and cook them separately. Also, after playing around I find bread bakes better placed high in my oven.  

This recipe came originally from Company’s Coming Breads and I have tweaked it to my own preferences.