Welcome in the fall with a hearty homemade bread easy to make even for beginners!
This is an easy recipe for anyone who loves homemade bread; it is especially recommended for beginners and those who do not have too much time available for home baking.
Easy Sunflower Bread Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 package yeast
- ½ cup warm water
- 1½ cups whole grain spelt flour
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- some additional spelt and/or whole wheat flour for kneading (quantity as needed)
- 1 ½ cups roasted sunflower seeds
- 2 teaspoons garlic salt
- 2 tablespoons dried or fresh (cut) sage leaves
- 4 tablespoons maple syrup
- ½ cup skim milk
- 2 whole eggs
- 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
- some butter, shortening or vegetable oil for greasing
Directions:
- Mix yeast with ½ warm water and let sit for c. 10 minutes; stir from time to time. Place 2 cups of spelt flour and 1 cup of whole wheat flour in food processor or large mixing bowl (for hand mixer). Tip: Food processor is preferable since batter will eventually become very sticky and hard to handle.
- Add 1 ½ cups sunflower seeds, 2 teaspoons garlic salt, 2 tablespoons sage, and 4 tablespoons maple syrup to the flour. Process well, then add the yeast-water solution while machine or mixer is still running. Process well for approximately 10 seconds and let sit for 5 minutes.
- Mix ½ cup skim milk, 2 whole eggs, and 2-3 tablespoons olive oil. Add the mixture to the batter and process, then add the remaining ½ cup spelt flour and process until well mixed.
- Empty the sticky batter onto a well-floured kneading board and flour the surface to make it manageable for kneading. Knead for c. 2 minutes adding flour as needed to prevent dough from sticking. Let sit.
- Grease a large bowl with butter or vegetable oil; then place dough in the bowl and turn over repeatedly so that all surfaces are greased. Cover the bowl with a towel and let rise until roughly double in bulk (c. 2 hours). Leave the floured kneading board out for subsequent further processing.
- When dough has risen up to double its original size, take it out of the bowl, punch it down, and roll it onto the lightly floured board into a rectangle. Roll the dough up jelly-roll style from the shorter end. Seal the ends of the roll by pressing down the ban.
- Prepare a cookie sheet by greasing an area sufficient in size to accommodate twice the bulk of the dough roll. Place dough roll on cookie sheet, cover with towel and let rise once more until double its size (1-2 hours).
- Preheat oven to 3750F, insert cookie sheet and bake bread for 35 to 40 minutes. Take out and let cool.
Variations:
You can vary the ratio of spelt flour to whole wheat flour at your discretion. The more whole wheat flour you use the heartier the flavor of the bread becomes. The more spelt flour you use the more cake-like and delicate the bread is going to be. It is also worthwhile trying out roasted pumpkin seeds instead of sunflower seeds (the use of sunflower seeds once again will result in a heartier flavor). In whatever variant, the bread tastes absolutely lovely and can be made of all natural and organic ingredients.
