Dough, Re, Mi, Fa... Time to Bake! | Healthy & Mindful Baking

Hello everyone, I really hope that you are all well and have had a pleasant and wholesome Easter weekend with your loved ones.  The UK has been in lockdown for a few weeks, so hopefully by now, you’ve had enough time to adjust to and settle into the current circumstances. Most people I’ve been in contact with have established some sort of means to stay energised, optimistic and productive, albeit that may not be the case every day (as I’m sure we’ve all come to accept). One thing that has really humoured me throughout this situation is the huge number of people who have suddenly decided to take up cooking and baking! Even my brother- who FYI has never baked in his 16 years of life- decided to make cookies the other day. I, for one, absolutely love to bake as I find it really therapeutic and I enjoy experimenting with new techniques and ingredients. I also prefer to bake my own treats, as I find that shop-bought cookies, cakes etc. can be really sickly sweet, so I reduce the amount of sugar in my recipes or use healthier alternatives. Another thing that I’ve noticed since we’ve been in isolation is that everyone appears to be on a health-kick right now, having either taken up running or following Joe Wicks’ daily 9am workouts. Therefore, I thought that this would be the perfect time for me to start a new series- Healthy & Mindful Baking- full of recipes to inspire you to perfect your culinary skills.

At the start of the year, I spent a couple of months working in Germany as an Au Pair. One of the many cultural differences that struck me between the UK and Germany is that the Germans absolutely love their bread. They have an unbelievable assortment of choice in local bakeries which isn’t surprising given that they eat it twice a day for breakfast and Abendbrot (literally: evening bread). For both meals, they eat their bread with a selection of toppings including cold cut meats, cheese and spreads. Now that I look back on it, whilst I was out in Germany, I didn’t properly appreciate the bread and to be brutally honest I was getting quite fed up with how much I was eating. Nevertheless, as soon as I returned to the UK, not only did I truly miss Abendbrot, but I could hardly stomach eating the heavily processed shop-bought bread back at home. Luckily, my German host mother taught me how to bake the bread which she would make freshly for the family every few days. Within a couple of days of returning home, I made the full grain bread for my own family and suffice to say, it was a true winner.

I particularly love this recipe because not only is it super nutritious, but the dough doesn’t require extra time to proof before putting it into the oven. Moreover, it’s ridiculously easy to make and tastes incredible too. Since baking this fresh bread, I can really taste how processed shop bought loafs are. I usually get really bloated whenever I eat shop bought bread but with this recipe, I never have the same issue. Without further ado, here is my fool-proof recipe for the best full-grain wholemeal loaf you will ever have.

DINKELBROT

Ingredients: 

·       500g wholemeal spelt flour 

·       1 pack yeast 

·       3 tsp. sea salt

·       4 tbsp. sunflower seeds 

·       4 tbsp. pumpkin seeds

·       4 tbsp. linseed 

·       4 tbsp. sesame seeds 

·       1 tbsp. wild honey/agave nectar 

·       500ml lukewarm water 

·       Optional: wild garlic blend

Note: You can substitute any of the seeds with another variety if you want 

Instructions: 

1.  Preheat the oven to 70°C and line a rectangular loaf tin (21cm x 11cm x 7cm) with parchment paper. (I had to use 2 tins because they were too small) 

2.  Mix together the flour, yeast, salt and seeds together in a bowl. Add the optional wild garlic blend to the mixture if you are using it. 

3.   Dissolve the honey in lukewarm water and pour over flour. (It’s really important that the water is lukewarm, and not any hotter as yeast is very easily deactivated by high temperatures.)

4.   Combine all of the ingredients together well with a spoon and mix well for around 10 minutes to form a smooth dough 

5.    Pour the dough into the baking tin and place in the oven. After 45 minutes, increase the temperature to 220°C and leave the bread to bake for 60 minutes (Note: If you are using 2 smaller tins instead of one large one, only bake for 40 minutes at 220°C)

Tip: when the bread begins to brown on top in the oven, place baking paper on top to prevent it burning as the centre cooks

6.     Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before taking out of the tin and leaving to cool for another 20 minutes on a wire rack. Cut with a serrated knife and enjoy warm with butter and any other toppings!

Good luck with baking the bread if you try out this recipe and comment down below how it goes if you do! I hope you all have a lovely week and keep well.

Until next time, Khadijah x