Home baked whole grain bread

It turned out really well!! Not too dense or heavy. It wasn't as soft as I'd like for sandwiches but it was just fine.

Straight out of the oven

Next time I'm going to put more seeds in it. I bought a bag of poppy seeds, and I've also got sesame, sunflower and flax seeds. So good. And the recipe I used didn't have any sugar in it, which was good. I adapted it from Squirrel's New Vegan and Vegetarian Cookbook.

Makes 1 smallish loaf, depending on how big your loaf pan is

Ingredients:

450g wholemeal flour

1 sachet of instant dried yeast (this is about 2.5 tsp)

1/2 tsp salt

50g gluten flour (vital wheat gluten)

Seeds of choice

Enough warm water to make a firm moist dough

Method:

Mix together flour, gluten flour, salt, seeds and yeast. Make a well in the center and pour in the warm water (start with one cup).

Mix the dough, adding more water until a firm elastic dough is achieved.

Turn onto a floured bench. Knead for 5 minutes or until smooth. Place in an oiled bowl and let rise* for about 1/2 an hour or until double in size.

Knead again lightly. Press out dough gently to about the length of your loaf tin and roll it up. Place the rolled up dough in the tin with the 'seam' side down. Let rise again until doubled.

Bake at 200 degrees C for 30-40 minutes or until brown and sounds hollow when tapped.

Try to let it cool down before you slice it or eat it!

*I have a gas oven at home so I light it for a few seconds then turn it off and leave the dough to rise inside. It works perfectly. I probably don't need to do that since it's summer here now, but I do anyway.

I discovered after looking through endless recipes for bread online that the reason wholemeal/grain bread is much denser than white bread is because it doesn't have as much gluten in it. Interesting. Then I found the recipe in the squirrels book and gluten was an extra ingredient! Whaddya know. Shoulda looked there first. :)

Also, try not to oil the loaf tin too much. Next time I'll use baking paper. I let my loaf cool in the pan before I took it out and it soaked up all the oil I'd greased it with, so the bottom few mm or so of my loaf was soggy. It did dry out though, but still!

This bread freezes well. You just have to fight a little to pull apart the slices, just like when you freeze fresh bakery bread.