Oh course this happens on the week where I'm not just making 1 loaf, I'm making 3. I intended to have 10 hungry women to feed on Friday, and had planned on turky sandwiches on fresh homemade bread. Unfortunatly the ice in Atlanta had different ideas, so now I need those three loafs... for next week. At least I hadn't bought the lunch meat yet.
Here's the recipe for a normally pretty tasty loaf, that was only moderately tasty this time.
Pumpkin and Sunflower Seed Loaf
1 1/4 cups warm water
2 tbsp. liquid honey
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
1/4 cup pepitas (green pumpkin seeds)
1/8 cup of sunflower seeds without hulls
2 tsp. (10 ml) quick-rise (instant) dry yeast
First all of the liquid ingredients go in the container. Pretty huh?
Honey can be messy to measure, but sugar content I'm told has great affect on bread so it is best ot measure it. If you have a recipe that uses both oil and honey, measure the oil first, and then in the same measurement spoon without rinsing, measure the honey. The honey then plops out without sticking to the spoon. I can usually get 2 tablespoons of honey out of the spoon easily per every one spoon of oil, so if you're using a recipe with a lot of honey, you could space out the oil inbetween spoonfulls.
Next come all the dry ingredients. I used more of a half and half with the wheat flour so the bread isn't as heavy. I've heard vital wheat gluten added can help make pure whole wheat bread less heavy, I may have to give that a try. The whole grains are healthier than the bleached flour.
After that it's time to start adding crunchy stuff. You can very the seeds to your liking. The you really can't start tasting the flax seed until you add it in very large amounts. Flax seed gives a nutty texture. You can purchase flax seed whole and grind it in your food processor. Unground flax seed passes through the body without the body absorbing the nutrients, so it's best to grind it.
Green pumpkin seeds or pepitas as they are called give nice bits of crunch to this bread. Pepitas are essentially hulled regular pumpkin seeds. I'm a big fan of sprinkling them on salads or adding them to trail mix for a yummy crunch. Also yummy on steamed vegtables in any recipee you'd add nuts to, and you can even make pesto aout of them subbing them for pine nuts. They have a lot of health benifits in moderation, including protecting men's bone strenth, anti-inflamatory for arthritus, and lowering cholestrol.
Lastly, make yourself a volcano for the yeast. Maybe it was the yeast, maybe it was that I tried to make the loaf on the delay setting, but something just didn't work out as well this time. The Friday loaf was much shorter and denser, take a look, same reciepe and machine. I've also got to figure out how to make loaf without lal the bumps on the top. Hrmmm...
So Wednesday night I baked a loaf, Thursday night I delayed a loaf until morning. Friday I got up, took it out, exclaimed so exclamatives that it didn't look as tasty as others I've made, and then decided that maybe it would be best of have some more Rosemary Loaf on hand. The boy courageously braved the icy driveway to pick more rosemary.... that was also covered in snow and ice, but still alive. Since when do we have snow that sticks around in Atlanta?
Shortly after the bread machine started cranking the Rosemary loaf, we canceled the meeting I needed 3 loaves for in the first place. So the boy and I ate fresh rosemary loaf when it came out for Linner (lunch/dinner) and the neighbors birds had a feast with the stubby loaf.
I give the pumpkin and sunflower seed loaf 3 loaves. It's normally good, I just don't know what happened. Anyone else have any ideas? Did yours come out good when you tried this recipe? Is it my yeast?
0 comments:
Post a Comment