Tag Archives: poppy seeds

six seed soda bread

27 Friday Apr 2012

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I have been looking for an intense seedy bread and found this one recently at Heidi Swanson’s wonderful blog, 101 Cookbooks. She adapted this recipe from ‘River Cottage Everyday’ by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and I have quoted her recipe verbatim. Normally I am not a big fan of soda bread but this one was yummy, dense and chewy… just the way I like my bread! I will try substituting the all-purpose wheat flour with other flours and let you know if I find a winning combination. Also, I made two smaller loaves instead of one large one so my baking time was reduced. A keeper, for sure!

Six-Seed Soda Bread

2-½ tablespoon each of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, poppy seeds and flax seeds.

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

1-3/4 cup spelt flour

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

1-3/4 cup buttermilk

a bit of extra buttermilk or milk

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Place a rack in the center of the oven. In a small bowl combine all the seeds and set aside.

Sift the flours, baking soda and salt into a large mixing bowl. Stir in all but 2 tablespoons of the seeds. Make a well in the flour, pour in the buttermilk and stir until the dough just comes together. If you need to add an extra splash of buttermilk because the dough is too dry, you can. As Hugh says, “Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead lightly for about a minute, just long enough to pull it together into a loose ball but no longer- you need to get into in the oven while the baking is still doing its stuff.”

Place the dough on a lightly floured baking sheet and mark it with a deep cross across the top, cutting two-thirds of the way through the loaf with a serrated knife. Brush with buttermilk and sprinkle with the remaining seeds, making sure that plenty of seeds make it down into the cracks. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the bread is golden crusted on top and bottom (you may want to move the oven rack up for the last 15 minutes if you need more color on the top of the loaf.) Cool on a wire rack.

Makes a single loaf.

french bread with organic lavender

02 Monday Jan 2012

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In North America, we often think of lavender as an essential oil and an ingredient in soaps and body products. In French cooking, however, is common to use organic lavender in many different cooked dishes, including breads, pastries, roast meats, and sauces. I often use lavender in French bread, shortbread, in roast lavender-honey duck, as well as adding a pinch to black tea.

French Bread with Lavender

1 oz (or 1 tablespoon) dry active yeast

1 cup warm water

1 tablespoon honey (or natural sweetener of your choice)

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon dried organic lavender

3 cups organic all-purpose flour

1 egg white, beaten (to glaze the loaves)

Place yeast and water in a large mixing bowl and allow to sit for about 5 minutes. If yeast has begun to bubble or foam a little, add the honey, olive oil, lavender and salt and mix together. (If yeast isn’t bubbling, discard as this means that your yeast is dead and your bread will not rise.)

Add 2 cups of the flour, mixing in with a wooden spoon until the dough is smooth. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes, incorporating as much of the remaining 1 cup of flour as needed for a smooth, elastic dough.

Place dough into a large, oiled bowl. Cover with a damp tea towel and allow to sit in a warm place for an hour and a half (or for one hour in the oven on the ‘proof’ setting).

Punch down dough. Cut in half. Roll out each half on a floured surface to about 1/4-inch thick, then roll up the dough into a long loaf. Make three diagonal cuts in the top of the loaf and place on a baguette or loaf pan. Repeat with the other half of the dough.

Place loaf pan(s) in a warm place to rise for about an hour or until double in size. Brush beaten egg white over the loaf just before baking.

Bake in a 375 degree (F) oven for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Enjoy!

Instead of baguettes you can always shape these into small rolls. I also sometimes shape these into Funky Breadsticks and serve them in a tall glass vase. Instead of lavender, you can keep the dough plain and garnish with parmesan cheese, poppy seeds or sesame seeds. Or you can add fresh or dried herbs to the dough.