This recipe comes from my Country Calendar Homestead Baking book. Lisa’s seed bread, with its crispy outside crust and its moist crumb, absolutely delicious. The flavour and texture came from soaking the seeds overnight, a trick that Lisa’ says makes the seeds easy to digest as they will be softer when cooked. The recipe will make two generous-sized loaves and the bread freezes well.

Ingredients

• 3 teaspoons salt
• About 3 cups seeds (use a mixture of linseed, sesame, pumpkin or sunflower, or use some rolled oats).
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon molasses( or use golden syrup)
• 900 millilitres very hot water
• 4 teaspoons Sure Bake yeast mix
• ½ cup water
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 600 grams wholemeal flour
• 600 grams white flour (use bread making flour)

Method

1. In a large bowl stir together the salt, seeds, honey, molasses or golden syrup and 900 mls of water. Set aside at room temperature over night.
2. The next day, preheat the oven to 200°C. Grease 2 large (21cm x 11cm) loaf tins well.
3. Mix the yeast with the ½ cup warm water and sugar. Set aside until frothy. Add the frothy mixture to seed mixture in the large bowl.
4. Stir in the flours and work well to make sticky dough. Divide the mixture between the prepared tins. Set aside in a warm place to rise for 30 minutes. You do not want the dough to double in bulk, but rise about ¼ - 1/3 in size.
5. Bake in the preheated oven 40-50 minutes or until cooked. Bread is cooked when it sounds hollow when tapped from underneath. Transfer to a cake rack to cool. The bread is better cut the next day.

Cooks Tips

You need to start this recipe the day before as it requires the seeds to be soaked overnight.