“Life Changing?” Loaf

In which I attempt to make a Life Changing Loaf of Bread

I spend a great deal of time reading recipes.  I think baking is the best science ever because I can eat the result and then repeat my experiment and eat the result AGAIN.  This is convenient because I often suffer from Bored and baking is a good way to relieve Bored.  However, I also harbor the belief that baking should be fun and relaxing and the output should be worth more or at least the same as the amount of effort I put into it.

So I see recipes and weigh and measure them in my mind trying to decide if I want to make them.  Sometimes it takes multiple trials for me to learn my baking lessons.  I baked with yeast three times–GF Cinnamon Rolls… a lot of work and while they tasted good, they also tasted like work and not in a satisfying way.  I’ve finally learned that baking with yeast just doesn’t work for me.  (What I tell you three times is true!)  I’m sure I could figure it out, but then comes in that effort part.  Yeast is too temperamental, which just doesn’t work for me.  I’m the only thing allowed to be temperamental in the kitchen.  

I also have a problem with recipes in that I skim them rather than read them and often don’t read the story and the “lessons” around the recipe that could help with making the item.  I just want to make it.  Recipes I make have to be shorter than my attention span and even then I often don’t pay that much attention to them.

Did you know that the leader of the Sharks in West Side Story appears in a song toward the end of Holiday Inn?

Anyway, this would be the perfect time to segue into, “but then I made THIS recipe and my life changed!”  Except that’s not true.  It’s good, but I’m still the same person I always was 🙂

Ingredients:
1 cup raw sunflower seeds
½ cup flax seeds
½ cup raw whole almonds
1 ½ cups rolled oats
2 Tbsp. chia seeds
3 Tbsp. if using psyllium husk powder
1 tsp. fine grain sea salt
1 Tbsp. honey
3 Tbsp. melted coconut oil
1 ½ cups water

I decided to make this recipe mostly because I actually had all the weird ingredients–chia, psyllium, coconut oil–and I haven’t had anything resembling a hearty bread in years.  So I bought the sunflower seeds and almonds and what not and decided to give it a try.

Directions:
1. In bread pan combine all dry ingredients, stirring well.

What is this “flexible, silicon loaf pan” the actual recipe speaks of?  I grew up in Corning, NY, the glass capitol of the world.  I’m using pyrex.

2. Whisk honey, oil and water together in a measuring cup.

Thankfully I have a 4 cup measuring cup.  Though I could be an overly enthusiastic whisker.  Also, as a lesson from tasting the result of this, I’d whisk the honey, oil, water and salt together.  My salt made a colony in one area of the loaf. 

3. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix very well until everything is completely soaked and dough becomes very thick (if the dough is too thick to stir, add one or two teaspoons of water until the dough is manageable).

Also helpful: if the psyllium is not in pill form.  Good to read bottles when they are bought.  In other news, ~51 capsules weighing 0.52 g each will give you 3 tablespoons of psyllium powder.  It will just take like an hour to empty each capsule.

4. Let sit out on the counter for 2 hours.

5. Preheat oven to 350°F .

6. Place loaf pan in the oven on the middle rack, and bake for 20 minutes. Remove bread from loaf pan, place it upside down directly on the rack and bake for another 30-40 minutes.

Oh.  That’s why the recipe wanted this weird flexible loaf pan thing.  Well, a spatula and some patience yields the same results.  The loaf holds together pretty well.

7. Let cool completely before slicing.

The recipe says something like cooling completely before slicing is “difficult, but important.”  The recipe also says, “Bread is done when it sounds hollow when tapped.”  I didn’t believe it.  I sliced it while it was warm (because it smells wicked good) and not only did the world not end, but the loaf didn’t fall apart either.

It is good, but not life changing.  I’ll probably make it a few more times because I’ve mastered the capsule-emptying technique.  I might as well use my skills for good.