Category: Breads

Multigrain Sourdough Bread

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Multigrain Sourdough Bread

  • Servings: 32 Servings
  • Difficulty: Easy
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Before Christmas, a co-worker offered me some sourdough starter. I had tried in the past and failed miserably. This time I had specific instructions on how to keep this starter alive. I will post below my newest version of the sourdough bread but there are a lot of recipes to come with sourdough starter and discard. I will also do a feeder cheatsheet for the starter but in the meantime I can say I’ve been having a lot of fun. This recipe starts with a starter that is ready to be used.

The Prep time is initially 30 minutes, then we have the stretch series that takes 2 hours and then the proofing of 14 hour to the final proofing of 3-4 hours

Ingredients

  • 200 gram of whole wheat flour
  • 800 gram of unbleached flour
  • 20 gram of salt
  • 50 gram raw sunflower seeds
  • 50 gram of pumpkin seeds (if salted, omit the salt)
  • 85 gram of flax seeds
  • 200 gram of sourdough starter
  • 725 gram of room temperature water
  • Corn meal for dusting

Nutrition Per Slice

  • Calories 168
  • Fat 7 g
  • Sugar 0 g
  • Carbohydrates 26 g
  • Protein 7 g
  • Fibre

Directions

  • Mix all ingredients and form into a ball.
  • Put in covered container and let sit on the counter for 30 minutes.
  • Now we do the first stretch. Fold the dough in half and roll into a ball. Do this 3 times and let sit for another 30 minutes.
  • Repeat the above 3 more times.
  • Let sit on the counter for 12-14 hours covered.
  • Put a bit of corn meal on your surface and cut the dough into halves.
  • Shape into a loaf and put in banneton basket for proofing. Cover with damp towel.
  • Let sit for 3-4 hours on the counter. If you only want to bake one bread, you can put the second one in the fridge for up to 4 days, making sure to keep the covering towel damp.
  • Preheat oven with cast iron bread loaf pan with cover at 460 degrees for 40 minutes. See picture of pans
  • Put loaf on parchment paper and place in hot cast iron bread loaf pan and cover.
  • Bake for 35 minutes.
  • Remove cover and bake for another 10 minutes.
  • Let cool for minimum 30 minutes before cutting.

As you see from the picture below, I’ve included one that shows my pans. They were inexpensive and I bought them on Amazon. Just make sure that they are treated before.

You will see in some future posts the original white sourdough bread but this is the one I have been making as it has more fiber. The advantage to sourdough is that it is diabetic friendly as it does not spike the sugar levels as does white bread.

Each loaf makes 15 to 16 slices. Now you don’t need as much to feel full as sourdough is denser to start with and with the whole wheat and nuts, you feel satisfied longer,

Those were my nuts of choice and of course you can vary them to your liking. I will keep experimenting and will adjust as I go and post those but if you find a new variation that you think I should try, please feel free to comment and let me know.

To keep bread nice, I use a beeswax bag. You can use a paper bag that you can fold closed.

In the meantime, there is just something special about the smell of fresh bread so have fun and make this bread your own.

Sunflower and Flax Seed Whole Wheat Bread

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Sunflower and Flax Seed Whole Wheat Bread

  • Servings: 8-10 of 60 grams or 2 slices of 2 ounces each
  • Difficulty: Easy
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I started with white bread, moved up to whole wheat and now I’ve graduated to healthy multigrain bread. I’m having fun with bread. Who knew that making bread that you don’t need to kneed would be fun.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour (I use unbleached)
  • 2 tsp of salt
  • 1 tsp of instant or rapid-rise yeast
  • 2 1/4 cups of water (120-130 degrees Fahrenheit or 50-55 Celsius)
  • 1/3 cup of sunflower seeds
  • 1/3 cup of flax seeds (whole)
  • Vegetable oil spray

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt and yeast together. At this time you can add the sunflower and flax seeds and stir them around a bit.
  2. Pour water into the bowl and using a spatula mix in until it’s all incorporated.
  3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit on your counter for 12 to 20 hours.
  4. After rise time, spray an 18×12 inch sheet of parchment paper on counter with vegetable spray. Set aside.
  5. On clean floured counter use your cupped hands to drag dough in small circles to form smooth ball.
  6. Preheat oven at 425 and place dutch oven as your oven heats up (approximately 10 min)
  7. Transfer ball to centre of greased parchment sheet. Use parchment to lower dough into Dutch oven (let extra parchment hang over pot edges) Cover pot with lid and put back in oven for 30 minutes
  8. Remove lid and put back in until golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes.
  9. Place on cooling rack to cool.

Nutrition Per Serving

  • Calories 213
  • Fat 0.374 g
  • Sugar 0.31 g
  • Carbohydrates 39.21 g
  • Protein 7.57 g
  • Fibre 5.1 g

Trick for yeast, make sure your water is hot enough but not too hot. Yeast is a living organism. Also got to find out that one of my issues with yeast was that I stored it in the cupboard next to the stove. Guess what, big mistake. I was killing it with the heat. Lessons learned.

Making this bread reminded me that with patience anything in the kitchen can be conquered. Seriously, this bread is so easy to make and it is good too. You add other seeds, just make sure to keep that in calorie count. I’m open to suggestions so help me with this. Have fun and make it your own.

Homemade White Bread

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Homemade White Bread

  • Servings: 8-10 ( 8, 3 oz or 70 gr slices)
  • Difficulty: Easy
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I must confess that making bread has been a fear of mine. I never seem to make yeast work for me. I’ve made bread in my bread machine, successfully, I might add. Time to step up my game. I went looking for a simple recipe that a child can make. Found one and here it is.

Ingredients

  • 3 cups of all purpose flour (I use unbleached) a little more for your counter
  • 2 tsp of salt
  • 1/4 tsp of instant or rapid-rise yeast
  • 1 cup plus 2 tbsp of warm water (120-130 degrees Fahrenheit or 50-55 Celsius)
  • 1 tbsp white vinegar
  • vegetable oil spray

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt and yeast. Add water and vinegar. Use rubber spatula to stir and press until dough comes together and no dry flour is visible, 2 to 3 minutes.
  2. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rise until bubbly and doubled in size, at least 8 hours or up to 18 hours.
  3. After rise time, spray an 18×12 inch sheet of parchment paper on counter with vegetable spray. Set aside.
  4. Sprinkle clean counter heavily with extra flour and coat your hands with extra flour. Transfer dough to counter and use your floured hands to knead until smooth about 1 minute. (see kneading instructions below)
  5. On clean counter use your cupped hands to drag dough in small circles to form smooth ball.
  6. Transfer ball to centre of greased parchment sheet. Use parchment to lower dough into Dutch oven (let extra parchment hang over pot edges) Cover pot with lid and let dough rise until doubled in size (1-1/2 to 2 hours).
  7. Adjust oven rack to middle position. When dough is ready, place covered pot in preheated oven at 425 and back for 30 minutes.
  8. Remove lid and back until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes.
  9. Place on cooling rack to cool.

Nutrition Per Serving

  • Calories 171
  • Fat 0.45 g
  • Sugar 0.1 g
  • Carbohydrates 35.67 g
  • Protein 4.92 g
  • Fibre 1.8 g

Kneading (for those of us who don’t usually knead bread)
– Place heel of your hand in centre of dough ball & press down & away from you.
– Fold dough over.
– Rotate dough and repeat steps 1-2 until dough looks smooth about 1 minute.
– On clean counter, use your cupped hands to drag dough in small circles to form smooth ball.

Trick for yeast
Make sure your water is hot enough but not too hot. Yeast is a living organism. Also got to find out that one of my issues with yeast was that I stored it in the cupboard next to the stove. Guess what, big mistake. I was killing it with the heat. Lessons learned.

After I made this bread, I found out that its even lower in calorie than the bread machine one. The only down side is the waiting 18 hours. I have to admit that this one tastes better, looks better and I walked around like a proud peacock that I got a bread to rise. I sure had fun and made it my own, your turn.

Country Biscuits

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Country Biscuits

  • Servings: 12-15 biscuits
  • Difficulty: Easy
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I like biscuits, and who doesn’t, but I had never made them. I asked a friend if I could have her recipe. When I looked it over, I asked, no baking soda? Well, I don’t think I could have upset her more if I tried. “Are you making soda biscuits or country biscuits?” Since these are country biscuits, take heed no baking soda. I’ll never make that mistake again. I modified it a little to reduce the fat and calorie intake. These are easy to make and are delicious.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups of all purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon of baking powder
  • 1 cup of low fat milk
  • 1/2 cup of melted low sodium low fat margarine
  • 1/4 tsp of salt
  • 1-3 tbsp of sugar (depending on how sweet you like them) I used 1 tbsp

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
  2. In a large bowl mix dry ingredients.
  3. Add milk and melted margarine. Stir until moistened. Do not over mix. (best to let the margarine cool a bit before adding)
  4. Immediately drop by heaping tablespoons onto lightly greased or parchment paper lined large cookie sheet.
  5. Cook for 10-12 minutes or until edges turn golden brown.

Nutrition Per Serving, 1 biscuit

  • Calories 97
  • Sugar 1.7 g
  • Carbohydrates 17.2 g
  • Protein 2.2 g
  • Fiber 0.5 g
  • Fat 3.6 g

You can serve these with your main course hot with butter or plain. You can serve them at breakfast with jam or preserves. You can have them plain with stew or soups or any way which way you please. Have fun and make them your own, but remember these are country biscuits.