That “bread”
I am a bread lover at heart and a lot of you may have seen me posting on twitter and instagram about this bread!
Firstly I grew up on a bread based diet my aunt always had freshly baked brown bread and my grandmothers speciality was her soft savoury soda bread. However leaving my teenage years and adopted a job such as modelling my relationship with bread changed, now bread is seen as something more as a treat and unlike my youth not something i could have everyday!
A huge part of this reason is now more and more its becoming harder to resource good homemade breads that aren’t laced in sugar, bleached or full of additives.
I went through a period were I just felt like I had to avoid bread and would feel awful if I dared touch any… and lets be honest one of the best smells in the world is toast, you can imagine my struggle!
Until I happened to stumble across this Recipe on one of my favourite blogs mynewroots.com , and after making it my initially time i was hooked! Its a common breakfast in my house or a great snack to carry around, it also freezes extremely well!
I have tried multiple Variations and combinations of this bread and would love if anyone has anymore ideas to try out!
Serves
Cooks in Minutes
Ingredients
Recipe- 1 loaf tin
- 1 cup sunflower seeds
- 1/2 cup flax seeds
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 cup hazelnuts or almonds
- 2 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 3 tbsp of melted coconut oil
- 1 1/2 cups of cold water
- 1 tbsp agave/maple syrup or pinch stevia for sugar free diets
- 3 tbsp psyllium husk powder or 4 tbsp if using psyllium seeds
Method
- Firstly you need a silicon loaf pan, and yes you really do, i tried it first with normal loaf tin ….doesn’t work so well!
- Combine all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl
- Whisk maple syrup, coconut oil and water together and add to dry ingredients until everything is completely soaked.
- Spoon into a silicone loaf tin and smooth over top
- Let it sit for at least two hours, I know this is hard but believe me there has been nights I’m making it in a rush and it just doesn’t set as well if you don’t give it this time !
- Preheat oven to 350°F / 175°C.
- Place in oven for 20 min, remove bread and place it upside down on the rack, it should easily slip out and bake for a further 30-4- minutes -still upside down
- Bread is done when it sounds hollow when tapped, let it cool completely… I know, hard again!
Bread will last up to 5 days in container but freezes well too! Ok so there is the basic recipe!
Now for my variations!
Firstly I would stick to using agave or maple I’ve tried stevia and its just that little bit of a synthetic taste, secondly hazelnuts are better in it than almonds!
- Quinoa- Now onto the fun stuff! I’m a huge fan of quinoa and decided to try it out with quinoa flakes so being a little nervous at first I tried half and half so half oats and half quinoa flakes….. just as good and an extra bit of protein and goodness!
- Goji berries- I added these one day when I choose to leave out the syrup to let the berries give the sweetness! and I’m so glad i did !
- Buns- to make them easier to carry as a snack I also put the mix in silicone muffin cases … obviously taking less time to cook too, they worked as a great snack and less crumbly as the bread version!
Now onto toppings!
- Almond butter & bananas
- Avocado & butternut squash- for a savoury option.
- Date sauce- i just blended medjool dates and some raw cocoa for a chocolate spread!
- Lastly, all your usuals like smoked salmon, ham, jams its also compliments soups very well
Let me know how you get on in your bread making and if any of you have any more suggestions on how to make this bread even more wondrous I would love to get your ideas!