Open Sesame!
It's an Ali Baba and the Forty Seeds Sourdough.
Seedy Sourdough
(Printable Recipe) Yields 2 loaves
Ingredients:
2 cups ripe sourdough starter
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups bread flour
about 1/2 cup of all purpose flour for kneading
1 teaspoon active dry yeast (and a pinch of sugar and about tablespoon warm water to proof)
2 cups water (warm)
2 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup flax seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
oil for greasing loaf pans
First, combine the starter with the warm water. You sort of have to chop it up.
Combine the flours in a separate bowl and once the water and starter are mixed up start to slowly add the flours.
Let it be for 15-20 minutes. While you wait, proof the yeast.
Combine and toast up your seeds (you'll know they are toasty when they smell like bird food, but bird food you'd eat).
Add the yeast, salt, and 1/2 cup of seeds and knead the dough for about 5 minutes until it's all incorporated. Use as much all purpose flour as you need while you knead. My dough was pretty sticky at first so I used about half a cup to knead.
Grease a bowl.
Form a ball of dough.
Place dough into greased bowl and make sure you spin it around in there so the top gets oiled too.
Let it rise overnight in the fridge.
In the morning, take the dough out of the fridge. Let it warm up for 30 minutes before dumping it onto a floured surface.
Divide the dough in two.
Shape your loaves and place them into their own well oiled bread pans.
Use some of the remaining toasted sesame and flax seeds on the top of your loaves.
Bake at 350°F for 45 minutes. Let cool for 15-20 minutes in the pan. Carefully remove loaves from pans and let cool to room temperature.
Although it will smell a little like bird food this bread is definitely NOT for the birds. Flax and sesame are both very valuable nutritionally speaking...
Flax is rich in omega-3 fats and an excellent source of both soluble and insoluble fiber. "Flax is known as a 'blessed plant' that can bring good fortune, restore health, and protect against witchcraft " (from 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life! by David Grotto).
Sesame is not just good for getting into magical caves of treasure but also a great source of lignans and phytosterols which have been proven to fight cancer and heart disease.
Since you, loyal reader, must be wondering how Lil and I go through so much bread, I'll disclose our secret: it's a combination of boyfriends and the freezer.
We share with everybody we can -- boyfriends just happen to be the must willing and readily available samplers. And when we make a couple of loaves at once, as in this seedy sourdoughy example, we freeze one.
When you freeze a fresh loaf of bread make sure it is totally cool before you seal it tightly in a ziplock and put in into the freezer. When thawing your bread, just be patient and let it come to room temperature out of the ziplock. If you are feeling impatient, nuke it in the microwave on it's defrost setting. Again, no plastic (clearly).
-Sarah
End note: When I try another seedy loaf, and if you are ambitious enough to try one yourself, I highly recommend doing something to the seeds on the top -- maybe an egg wash or just brush with some water. They need some glue to hold them down onto the bread and keep them off of the entire apartment.
And also: It was fantastic to have a successful sourdough after that black bread experience that came out more like a hockey puck than bread. Those loaves were for the birds.
Bake at 350°F for 45 minutes. Let cool for 15-20 minutes in the pan. Carefully remove loaves from pans and let cool to room temperature.
Although it will smell a little like bird food this bread is definitely NOT for the birds. Flax and sesame are both very valuable nutritionally speaking...
Flax is rich in omega-3 fats and an excellent source of both soluble and insoluble fiber. "Flax is known as a 'blessed plant' that can bring good fortune, restore health, and protect against witchcraft " (from 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life! by David Grotto).
Sesame is not just good for getting into magical caves of treasure but also a great source of lignans and phytosterols which have been proven to fight cancer and heart disease.
Since you, loyal reader, must be wondering how Lil and I go through so much bread, I'll disclose our secret: it's a combination of boyfriends and the freezer.
We share with everybody we can -- boyfriends just happen to be the must willing and readily available samplers. And when we make a couple of loaves at once, as in this seedy sourdoughy example, we freeze one.
When you freeze a fresh loaf of bread make sure it is totally cool before you seal it tightly in a ziplock and put in into the freezer. When thawing your bread, just be patient and let it come to room temperature out of the ziplock. If you are feeling impatient, nuke it in the microwave on it's defrost setting. Again, no plastic (clearly).
Close Sesame!
-Sarah
End note: When I try another seedy loaf, and if you are ambitious enough to try one yourself, I highly recommend doing something to the seeds on the top -- maybe an egg wash or just brush with some water. They need some glue to hold them down onto the bread and keep them off of the entire apartment.
And also: It was fantastic to have a successful sourdough after that black bread experience that came out more like a hockey puck than bread. Those loaves were for the birds.
Wow - your boyfriends are lucky guys! And a steady diet of seedy sourdough and pancakes will certainly make them less likely to wander and probably, less able to do so!
ReplyDeleteWell done.