Tuesday 25 February 2020

Sesame and sunflower seed loaf recipe

Makes one large loaf

Ingredients
  • 500g strong white bread flour
  • 300g water (at approximately 30 degrees celsius)
  • 50g sunflower oil
  • 10g salt
  • 7g dried instant yeast
  • 50g sunflower seeds
  • 50g sesame seeds
  • 1.5 teaspoons honey
  • 1 teaspoon of sesame oil


Weigh the ingredients and mix them altogether - being careful not to put the yeast in direct contact with salt as it will kill it.
You should end up with a loose, sticky dough.
Turn it out onto your clean work-surface DON'T ADD ANY FLOUR.
You'll find this dough hard to knead using a normal technique so you might want to try something like this:
http://youtu.be/PvdtUR-XTG0

If that looks too tricky you can use a more conventional kneading technique such as:

It's the high water content that gives you a light fluffy loaf - which is why it's important not to be tempted to add any flour to make it less sticky.
As you work the dough though it will naturally get smoother and less sticky until it no longer sticks to the work-surface, this should take less than 10 minutes (and is quite good exercise).
Cover your work surface with a very light dusting of flour and shape your dough into a ball.
Place it in a lightly-floured bowl, cover it and leave it for one hour at about 25-30 degrees celsius).

After about an hour your dough should have roughly doubled in volume.
Take it out of its bowl and shape it, see here https://www.thekitchn.com/basic-techniques-how-to-shape-97063
Cover it so it doesn't dry-out and leave it for another hour at 25-30 degrees celsius to double in size again.

In the meantime get your oven good and hot (250 degrees celsius) if you have a baking stone put that in the oven to get warm, if not then a thick baking tray will do.

Slice a nice simple pattern on the top using a sharp knife.
Place your loaf in the oven.
If you have a clean spray gun (as you use for watering plants) you can spray some water in the oven (the steam helps it rise), or simply put half a cup of hot water in a tray in the bottom of the oven.

Shut the oven door and don't be tempted to keep opening it.
After five minutes turn the heat down to 220 degrees celsius.
Leave it to bake for another 25 minutes (making a total of 30).
You can tell the loaf is done if when you take it from the oven and remove it from the tin, the bottom sounds hollow when you tap it.
If not then put it back in for another five minutes – you may want to take it out of the tin for the last five minutes so that the sides of the loaf crisp up a little.