Baking bread is fundamental to farm life. So on our Town Lot Farm we wanted to create this wonderful staple as it has been for thousands of years. Again we tried multiple approaches, from sourdough rye to white in our bread machine. None of them were satisfactory. We wanted a versatile, flavorful, hearty, and easy to bake bread.
Then we found a recipe on Jenny Can Cook’s website that with a little tweaking met all our criteria. This bread is soft and fluffy when fresh but it matures over the course of a week into a firmer loaf that can be sliced thinly and makes a hearty addition to our meals. We keep it in a sealed container for three days and then move it to the fridge where it can last and age another three days. So we bake it about once a week.
Here is our recipe…
in a bowl mix together
2-1/2 cups of Anita’s Organic unbleached white flour
1/2 cup of our own multigrain mix consisting of
– 1/2 cup large flake rolled oats finely blended
– 1/2 cup large flake rolled oats coarsely blended
– 1/2 cup sunflower seeds finely blended
– 1/2 cup sunflower seeds coarsely blend
– 1 cup brewers barley
– 1 cup Anitas unbleached white flour
2 teaspoons of instant yeast
1 teaspoon of salt
1-1/2 cups very hot water
Cover the bowl and set aside for 1 hour
Turn the dough out onto a floured bread board
Rough scrape, fold, and form into a round shape
Turn into a bowl or pot lined with parchment paper, snip the top with scissors and drizzle some olive oil into the snips
Cover for 15 minutes while preheating the oven with the cast iron baking pot and lid inside to 450F
Carefully transfer the dough and parchment paper into the hot pot, cover with hot lid and bake for 40 minutes
Remove lid and parchment paper
Return to oven and bake another 20 minutes until the bread develops a golden brown crust
Enjoy the aroma of freshly baked bread in your kitchen.