Paucity of Flour: No-Knead Seed Bread

No knead seed bread
No-Knead Seed Bread

Pressure makes diamonds, and this one turned out to a gem. With flour supplies running low in the house and empty shelves at the supermarket, I had to get inventive to get my baking fix. What they did have however was heaps of seeds, so I decided to make a bread packed with seeds and the little flour I had left.

I found a bunch of different recipes online all slightly different. Some used baking powder as the leavening agent, but I enjoy the magic of yeast, so gave that a go instead. Many called for the use of milk and eggs but I wanted to make this vegan to be more accessible. Didn’t have any idea how it would turn out but it ended up mean!

The hydration of the dough is well over 100% which makes it difficult to handle, but is necessary due to the seeds which soak up the liquid. For that reason it’s no-knead, which makes it no effort at all to make.

I baked this in the morning and served it for lunch with my spiced capsicum and avo on toast which you can find here:
https://sebcooks.blogtown.co.nz/2020/03/27/spiced-capsicum-on-avo-toast/

Anyhow let’s get cracking!

No-knead seed bread (vegan)
Serves: 4 (about 10 slices)
Hands-on time: 10 minutes
Hands-off time: 12 hours
Cooking time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

150g high-grade flour
150g wholemeal flour
330g water
1 tsp yeast
2 Tbsp sugar
50g oil (any oil is fine)
Mixed seeds: (literally use anything you want/have!)
40g linseeds
40g sesame
40g sunflower
40g pumpkin
40g chia (this might be important because chia can act as an egg substitute)
A good sprinkle of salt ~ I used 1-2 tsp of coarse rock salt

Instructions:

  1. In a dry pan over medium-high heat, toast the seeds until fragrant. Add a good sprinkle of salt – it helps to dry out the seeds. This might take around 5 minutes.
  2. in the meantime, mix the 330mL water, two tablespoons sugar and one teaspoon of yeast in a bowl and give it a good stir.
  3. Once the seeds are done, you could let them cool for a short time or put them straight into a large mixing bowl with the flour. The dry mixture will now be quite warm, but not painfully so. If it is painfully hot, don’t add the liquid mix until it has cooled down because this will kill the yeast.
  4. Once you’ve added the liquid mixture, give it all a quick mix, adding the 50 grams of oil as you go. Continue just until the point that everything looks properly mixed – there’s no point doing any more. The dough will now be very liquid and sticky and likely quite warm, but this is fine.
  5. Cover and let it prove overnight.
  6. Once proved, you’ll see that the gluten structure has developed in the dough and it is much easier to handle. Knock the air out of the dough but giving it a few folds like this:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzG90C2PExI
  7. Grease a loaf tin, roughly shape the dough to fit and pop it in.
  8. Heat the oven to 200 degrees C and let the dough rise while the oven heats – by the time the oven is ready, the dough should have had long enough to rest. It’s not going to double in size like other dough due to the low flour content.
  9. Top with more seeds if you like and bake for around 45 minutes or until golden brown on top and it sounds hollow.

Concluding remarks: This loaf may seem more expensive to make than your regular bread, but I would calculate it to be less than $3 for the ingredients all up. A super healthy loaf, would highly recommend. 8/10

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