It's all gotten a little bit seedy here.

Yesterday was that time again, we'd run out of bread.



There is something so comforting about bread, and wholemeal in particular just screams homey goodness. (home-meal perhaps? hehe). Our store bought bread of choice was the wholemeal seeded batch and I figured that since we liked it so much from the shops, why not have a bash at adding seeds to the plain wholemeal loaves I'd been making. So I did. N arrived home last week with a nice selection of seeds from a local health food shop and yesterday morning I set to work adding them to the wholemeal mix.




It's worked out pretty well flavour-wise, but the dough didn't rise as much and it very dense, so I think using less seeds next time would probably be better, especially as it is totally packed with them. But still, let the experiments continue!

As you can tell from the dough resting picture it's been pretty sunny here lately. It's still not warm, but it's bright and Spring is definitely preparing itself to make an appearance. It's so wonderful to wake up to sun streaming in. Not long now til the veggies are growing, flowers showing and breakfast in the garden starts becoming something to contemplate. *sighs*

Anyway, enough of that smug contemplation for one post, on to the recipe!

Wholemeal seeded loaf.

10g yeast
300g wholemeal flour
200g strong white flour
10g salt
350g water
150g mixed seeds (this is what I used, but I think 100g is probably enough, use whatever seeds you fancy, I used linseed, pumpkin, sunflower and sesame)

Mix the yeast and flours together, then add the salt, mix again until combined then add the water and seeds. Mix until it forms a dough, then shape into a tight ball and leave to rest covered by a tea towel for 1 hour. Once rested remove onto a floured surface and form into a tight ball again and leave to rest for a further ten minutes. Then transfer into a proving basked (bowl with a well floured tea towel lining it more like) and prove for an hour. Meanwhile put the oven on to 250 C with a baking stone or flat baking tray inside. After the proving hour the dough should have risen to double it's size. Mine hadn't, but I baked it anyway! Place on the stone or tray in the centre of the oven and mist the oven with a water spray and then wet the bread slightly (to encourage a good crust) Bake for the first five minutes at 220 C then turn the oven down and bake for a further 35mins on 200 C. It should be slightly crusty and sound hollow when tapped. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy!