It has a hint (no more) of sweetness and a delightful slightly nutty taste. It is moist and soft with a good crust and makes delicious sandwiches. It also keeps REALLY well and I've sometimes had this last (and still be delicious) for over a week although it rarely lasts that long when my husband is around ;)
It's also really easy to make and all kneading is done with my electric Kitchenaid mixer with the dough hook attachment. A kitchen scale is needed to make this the way I do, as I weigh my flour ... however in case you don't have one, I have included cup measures for both flours since they are quite different volumes per weight for the two different flours. Make sure you use the correct technique to measure your flour if you are not able to weigh it. Flour compacts very easily in a measure cup and can cause you to accidentally add too much to your recipe causing you bread to turn out more like a brick ;) Lightly spoon flour into the measuring cup until it is slightly heaping then level off to the top of the measure cup with a straight edge, don't shake the measure cup to level the flour cause that's what can cause the compaction.
Night Before Ingredients
- 80g (2/3 cup) whole grain whole wheat flour
- 80g (1/2 cup) bread flour
- 2 Tbsp Vital Wheat Gluten
- 1 Tbsp Barley Malt (optional but it adds a nice flavor component)
- 1/2 tsp Instant Dry Yeast
- 1 cup lukewarm water
·
1/3 cup Maple Syrup
·
2 Tbsp Scottish Oatmeal
·
2 Tbsp Wheat Germ
·
2 Tbsp Flax Meal
·
2 Tbsp Semolina Flour
·
2 Tbsp Hazelnut Meal (or Almond meal but I like Hazelnut better)
·
1 Tbsp Poppy Seed (optional, I usually don't bother)
·
1 Tbsp Sesame Seed
·
1 Tbsp Sunflower Seed
·
1 Tbsp Flax Seed
·
1 Tbsp instant dry yeast
·
80g Whole Grain Whole Wheat flour
·
80 g Bread Flour
·
1 Tbsp Vital wheat gluten (optional but I use)
·
1.5 tsp salt
Combine the night before ingredients and stir until well combined. Cover and
leave on the counter over night.
The next day add all of the “Day of Ingredients” to a large mixing bowl. Pour in the “Night Before” mixture and using the dough hook on the lowest setting of your mixer machine knead for 5 minutes to combine all ingredients. Stop the mixer and let rest for 10 minutes to allow flour to absorb all the moisture it can. After the 10 minute resting period is over, turn the mixer on again to the lowest setting and knead again for 5-8 minutes (for a total of 10-15 minutes altogether) The dough should pretty much completely clean the sides of the bowl and will likely be in a ball on the
dough hook. That’s ok, as long as the dough is connecting with the sides of the bowl on each rotation it will be kneading well enough. You shouldn’t need to add any more flour but if the dough is still too sticky (sticking to the sides of the bowl) you can add a bit more a little at a time but be careful not to add too much flour or your bread will not rise properly and will end up a dense brick. Take the dough out and place on a work surface lightly dusted with flour. The dough should be tacky to the touch but should not stick to your hands or counter if kneaded by hand a few times, which I do, to check the consistency of the dough and to work it into a nice smooth ball before setting to rise.
Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and turn a few
times to grease the top of the dough as well. Cover with cling wrap or a damp
towel and set aside in a warm draft free place to rise till double in bulk (about an hour) Pour out the risen dough to your work surface and lightly deflate. Using a rolling pin, roll out dough to roughly the width of
your loaf pan and about 15 -18 inches long. Then roll the dough jelly roll fashion into a tube and pinch seams to seal. Gently shape into a loaf and place in prepared loaf pan (I like to lightly grease my pan with butter and put a piece of parchment paper cut to just fit the bottom of the pan which I also grease) Put your loaf in the pan. At this point, you can if you like fancy this up with a seed coating. Just give the loaf a
light egg white wash (egg white and 2 Tbsp water) and sprinkle some seeds over the top lightly pressing down to seal them in place. I like to use a blend of sunflower, poppy seed, sesame and/or flax seed. This makes for a really nice presentation but I only go to the bother for special occasions. Alternately you could brush the entire loaf with the egg wash, putting your seeds on a cookie sheet. Then roll the whole loaf in the seeds to get an all over coating before putting in loaf pan or on cookie sheet for a free form style loaf. Cover lightly with saran and place in a warm draft free spot to proof until bread is
about 1” or more above the rim of the pan, about
hour, maybe 2, be patient.
Bake @ 350’ in a pre heated oven for 30 minutes or to an internal
temperature of 190’. In my oven I have found 33 minutes at 350’ is usually JUST
right … at 30 minutes the internal temp isn’t quite 190’ but the extra 3
minutes is perfect .. if I go to 35 minutes it’s already too long. I always
think the crust is getting too dark but I trust the internal temp and that is a
pretty good guide.
This is the hard part ... once bread is removed from the oven immediately turn out onto a cooling rack and DO NOT TOUCH until fully cool before cutting. The bread MUST rest and cool before cutting as the inside will be quite moist and too tender to handle the knife until it has had a chance to firm up a bit with cooling. After that ... cut, slather with butter and enjoy!
UPDATE: An average slice of this bread (sandwich width) is about 50g and 144 calories. It is not a low calorie bread but it it stuffed with goodness. It has 2.4g of fiber per slice and almost 6 g of protein. Full nutritional detail can be seen here Maple Seed Bread Nutitional details
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