“This is My Kind of Bread”

When Mum tasted this bread, she said “this is my kind of food”. Yep – it’s my kind of food, too, Mum!

I have always loved a dense loaf of bread! It seems I get it from my Mum. This loaf of bread is phenomenal, and I have been working on it for a few months now to get it completely grain free. Yes you heard right, a grain free loaf of bread!

This bread consists of seeds and nuts and is held together with the super powers of psyllium and chia. I think this bread even conforms to the strict code of paleo... although I read that grains were gathered by our ancestors hundreds of thousands of years ago, but let’s not get into that as there is heaps about paleo that I love. You could call me paleo curious during the week and paleo ‘conscious uncoupling’ on the weekend... Life is all about balance! You get it!

This bread requires a little bit of soaking time, but it’s worth it. Plus by soaking the grains, you are able to digest them better, getting all of the beautiful nutrients that nature intended. I have found the longer you soak, the less cooking time is required (either evaporation, or the seeds and nuts have soaked up all of the water), so you may need to juggle the cooking time – but I will give you my general rules!

Yes – I love it with a poached egg for breakfast, with some gooey cheese on it with a glass of wine, toasted with Vegemite, or as an open sandwich with grilled vegetables. It is vegan, and gluten free. Eating this bread makes you feel great inside too! I went to the snow on the weekend and HAD to make this bread to take! It is that good! One thing I will live by til the day I die, if it doesn’t taste good, then I am not going to be writing about it!

You will need to start making this a few days in advance, but it’s worth it (look you can rush it, I did today, but it may lose a bit of its shape during the cooking process, and require more than two hours of cooking).

Ingredients:

1 cup buckwheat – soaked with one cup of water, overnight.
1 cup sunflower seeds
1⁄2 cup linseed
1⁄2 cup hazlenuts
1/3 cup of sesame seeds or pepitas
3 tablespoons chia seeds
5 tablespoons of psyllium seed husks
1 1⁄2 tsp grain sea salt (if using flaked I find that 2 tsp works well) 1 tablespoon maple syrup
3 tablespoons melted coconut butter or olive oil
2 cups water (you may need less if you are not soaking for as long)

Method

In a bowl, mix all of the ingredients together. Mix well, cover, and let sit in the fridge for 2 – 36 hours (it really can be this variable – however overnight seems to be the best).

Transfer dough into a silicon loaf tin and push the dough down with the back of a spoon, or your fingers would do. The dough should retain it’s shape if you pull the side away from the loaf.

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees celsius.

Place loaf in oven and bake for 1⁄2 hour. Remove bread from the load pan, and return the loaf to the oven and bake for another 1 1⁄2 hours. The bread will sound hollow-ish when tapped. Like all bread, this is a sign when it is ready.

Let cool completely before slicing, otherwise it will be a crumbly mess. The beauty of all of the seeds and grains is that they go all nice and ‘poppy’ and crunchy which give a textural sensation against the lovely nutty insides of this bread!