3 Loafs of Bread

Yesterday I stayed home from church with our youngest who was sick. I decided to make the most of my time at home and do something I enjoy but don't always have time for; Baking.  Most of the bread we eat each week is homemade bread, I like to make it but don't always have the chance.  Shaun-ta' has posted our 50/50 white/wheat bread recipe before, I just posted one of our favorite bread recipes Honey Oat Bread.  Two of the loafs I made today was based on that recipe.

3 Whole Grain Loafs of Bread

So I set forth to make some bread, I ended up with 3 loafs of different breads.  In each I used a different combination of whole grains.  It is really easy to add whole grains to your existing bread recipes.

The first loaf was a loaf of honey oat bread with buckwheat flour and amaranth grain.  I ground up a 1/2 cup of buckwheat groats in a blender, this yielded about 3/4 of a cup of flour, I replaced and equal amount of the bread flour with this flour.  Amaranth is an ancient grain that is very nutritious and also grows very well in the garden too.  Amaranth seeds are tiny seeds about the size of poppy seeds and just as crunchy.  I added 1/2 cup of amaranth to the dough.  We often add millet to our breads including our pizza dough.  It adds a nice crunch, amaranth is very similar in texture.  I did have some troubles with this loaf though, the honey oat bread is kinda fragile, if you let it rise too long it will fall and loose some of it's fluff, though it still tastes great.

The second loaf is a HoneyOatFlax bread was also based on the Honey Oat Bread recipe though instead of adding the 2 Tbls. of oil I added 6 Tbls. of ground flax seed and 2 Tbls. of water.  When using flax seed you can omit the oil in your recipe, Flax seed is very high in oil (the source of linseed oil) and it contains a type of Omega 6 Oils, not the exact same ones you find in Salmon but still good for you in moderation.  I also added 2 Tbls. of whole flax seed to add some texture and crunch.  This loaf turned out really nice, crusty outside, nice and moist inside.  I think the inside texture is even nicer than the oat bread by it self.  You can buy it in many grocery stores or find Ground Flaxseed here.

The third loaf is a 50/50 bread with wheat berries, I used a recipe almost exactly like our 50/50 Bread, the way I changed it up was by adding a 1/2 cup of soaked wheat berries, like you would use for Wheat Berry Porridge.  I had made some for breakfast the other day and had some extra.  This adds a nice chewy bits to the bread.  I think though that using sprouted wheat makes for a better bread, it is sweeter and a bit softer to chew.  I make a loaf recently with 3 types of sprouted grains check it out here: 3 Sprouted Grain Bread.

Most recipes can handle adding a few extra items, adding whole grains not only make for more interesting, delicious but also more nutritious.  Give it a try in your home.