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Seeded Bread

When I have the urge to bake bread on a weekend and want something not quite so time-consuming as French bread, I often make this loaf. It is a healthy bread with a good texture and makes particularly delicious sandwiches. It is also great toasted for breakfast.

Recipe information

  • Yield

    makes two 8-inch loaves

Ingredients

1 tablespoon active dry yeast
3 cups warm water
3 tablespoons soft butter or vegetable oil, plus a little for the mixing bowl and pans
1/4 cup dark maple syrup, molasses, or honey
3 cups whole-wheat flour
2–3 cups all-purpose white flour
1/3 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup flax seeds or poppy seeds
1 teaspoon salt

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Pour the yeast into the bowl of a standing electric mixer, if you’re using one, or otherwise just put it in a big bowl. Pour 1/4 cup of the warm water over the yeast, and let sit until dissolved and bubbly.

    Step 2

    Add the rest of the water, the butter or oil, the syrup, all the wholewheat flour, and 2 cups of the white flour, as well as the wheat germ, the seeds, and the salt. Mix well, and knead in the mixer or turn out and knead by hand, adding as much of the remaining white flour as the dough wants to absorb. Even if you knead in the mixer, turn out the dough at the end and knead it it briefly by hand, to get the feel of it. This will be a dense, heavy dough, but don’t worry—it will rise. Butter or oil the mixing bowl, and return the dough to it. Cover with plastic wrap, and let rise at room temperature until doubled in volume.

    Step 3

    Punch down and divide the dough in half. Butter thoroughly two 8- or 9-inch bread pans. Shape each piece into a loaf: first pat it into an oval the length of your bread pan, then with your hands stretch and ease the long sides under and pinch the seams together on the bottom side. Place each loaf in a bread pan seam side down.

    Step 4

    Cover the pans loosely with a kitchen towel, and let rise again until the dough has begun to swell over the top of the pans. Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 45 minutes. Turn the loaves out onto a rack to cool before slicing.

  2. Options

    Step 5

    A loaf of this bread, tightly wrapped in plastic wrap, will keep through the week stored in the refrigerator. I usually freeze the second loaf, cutting it in half or in thirds first and wrapping each separately. Or I give the second loaf to a bread-loving friend.

The Pleasures of Cooking for One by Judith Jones. Copyright © 2009 by Judith Jones. Published by Knopf. All Rights Reserved. Judith Jones is senior editor and vice president at Alfred A. Knopf. She is the author of The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food and the coauthor with Evan Jones (her late husband) of three books: The Book of Bread; Knead It, Punch It, Bake It!; and The Book of New New England Cookery. She also collaborated with Angus Cameron on The L. L. Bean Game and Fish Cookbook, and has contributed to Vogue, Saveur, and Gourmet magazines. In 2006, she was awarded the James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. She lives in New York City and Vermont.
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