Bread. What can you say? In a lot of cultures, it’s an essential and crucial food component. Like here in Norway. We love bread and freshly baked ones are our favorites. The smell, the taste, and the feeling are just amazing. I still remember my grandma’s newly baked bread and frankly, I still think they are the best ones I have ever tasted.
But then again great bread is hard to find these days. You know the ones that actually taste something and fills you up without having to eat 10 slices of it. So took on the task upon me and created some recipes.
Here’s the first I came up with. A delicious wholesome spelt pumpkin bread packed with good nutrients like fiber from the whole spelt, zinc from the pumpkin seeds and omega-3, 6 and 9 from the chia and flaxseeds. It’s simple, wholesome, nutritionally exciting and just really good! I tried it as a pizza crust too and I can just say that it made a whole new idea of pizza!
Makes one big breadIngredients
4.5dl lukewarm water 1tsp cane sugar (for the yeast) 50g yeast (dried or fresh) 500g whole Spelt flour and some for knitting it out 100g oat flakes 90g (1.5dl) raw unsalted pumpkin seeds 30g (3tbsp) crushed chia and flaxseeds (optional but gives moisture to the bread) ¾ tsp Himalayan sea saltDirections
- Mix the water with yeast and sugar. Set aside to let the yeast activate.
- Put all the left of the ingredients in another bowl Mix well.
- Make a hole in the middle of the dry ingredients in the bowl. Make it resemble a volcano. Pour in the water/water yeast mix and the olive oil.
- With a light grip on the ladle stir it all together while trying to keep it as the shape of a ball. Be gentle and don’t kill the dough!
- The dough ball has to let go the edges of the bowl. If it’s still sticky then add some more flour and incorporate this gently to the ball.
- Cover the dough with a clean dry towel and let it rise in a lukewarm/warm room for about 30 minutes until it gets to twice its original size.
- Put some flour on a bench or a table. Now knit the dough for a moment. You will want to fold the end of the ball that is closest to you over to the side longest away from you. Then turn the dough to get the longest edge near you to be able to keep on folding it in a shape of a ball. Repeat the whole action for about 2-3 minutes.
- Now either you can put your dough in a bread mold and on an oven tray, or you can shape it as a huge ball and lay it on a greased and light flowered oven tray.
- Let the dough rise for a 2nd time under the same towel for about 30min.
- Preheat the oven to 225 degrees Celsius or 435 degrees Fahrenheit.
- If you decided to make a round bread and you think it got to flat after the 2nd rise. Simply take the dough off the tray and putt it on the table (the table has to be lightly coated with flour). Reshape it on the table on put it on the greased tray again.
- With a small brush, coat the dough with some water or the liquid from a can of chickpeas/garbanzo beans.
- Put the dough in the middle of the oven and let it bake for about 30 minutes until it gets slightly brown. But check it after 20 minutes. The bread is done when you can hear a whole sound by putting it upside down and flicking the underside.
- Let it rest for some minutes and enjoy!