I have been using wholemeal spelt flour for this loaf (well, if you ignore the first time I made this and accidentally used self raising instead) but it would work just as well with strong wheat flour. The spelt gives it a slightly cake-like, crumbly texture. In fact not entirely unlike the self raising flour did but at least the spelt is strong enough for the loaf to keep its shape and the bread won’t drip over the sides of the tin when you put it in the oven…

I’ve used five types of seeds in equal weights: sesame, flax, sunflower, chia and pumpkin, but you could substitute other seeds and use whatever you have, eg poppy or linseed. It also contains oats, olive oil and a little honey so has a lot to recommend it. Team it with some home made jam and you can feel better about breakfast. And if you’re sneaky enough the kids won’t even notice there are seeds in there…

Recipe

Ingredients

350g spelt or strong wheat flour (or a combination)

45g oats

1 ½ teaspoons yeast

1 teaspoon of salt

20g sesame seeds

20g flaxseeds

20g sunflower seeds

20g chia seeds

20g pumpkin seeds

300ml water

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon of honey

Method

Put the flour, oats, yeast and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer, if you have one. As this is quite a wet and sticky dough it is much easier if you can use a dough hook.

Add the sesame, flax, sunflower, chia and pumpkin seeds:

Mix all the ingredients to combine.

Add the water, olive oil and honey and knead for 5-10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and silky.

Oil a large bowl and tip your dough into it.

Cover with a tea towel or oiled clingfilm and leave to rise until roughly doubled in size:

Tip your dough out onto a floured surface and knead briefly. Shape into a loaf.

Oil a 2lb loaf tin and put your dough into it. Use a pastry brush to brush the surface with water or milk and sprinkle with seeds to decorate. (I forgot to do this and my seeds weren’t keen on staying where they had been put).

Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise again. Set your oven to 200ºC.

Ready to bake

When your loaf is roughly doubled in size again (mine was left for a little too long, it doesn’t need to have risen this much) bake for 35-40 minutes.

It is ready when it is well risen and browned, and the base sounds hollow when tapped.

Remove from the tin and allow to cool on a wire cooling rack.

This bread makes lovely crunchy toast as well, if it lasts that long.

Categories: Baking, Bread, Dairy-Free Baking, healthy baking, Recipes, Uncategorized, Using Alternatives

Tags: baking, bread, chia seeds, flaxseed, loaf, pumpkin seeds, recipe, seeds, sesame seeds, spelt flour, sunflower seeds, wheat free, wholemeal spelt flour, yeast