Whole Wheat Bread ready in Five Minutes a Day

Bread. Some would say it's not that healthy and it makes you fat, others (including me) think a good, balanced diet is all you need to feel and look good, and others just don't care. Lately, I've learned that it's very important to know what your food contains and, preferably, to make it yourself and to buy only raw ingredients.

 

I'm taking it to the next healthy level, making bread on my own, I swear to God I had no help whatsoever. I think it's very important, before you make something new, to read and learn something about it: traditions, chemistry and methods. I found all I needed in Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day bread cookbook. Jeff Hertzberg (MD) and Zoë François (pastry chef) had answers to all my questions. Before even starting my dough, I had a very good bread-lesson that made me understand certain aspects of this beautiful and healthy food. For example, bread is healthy because it contains fiber (from bran) and vitamins, antioxidants and vegetable-based fat (from the germ). But once upon a time, someone decided that whole grain flour looks hideous and that white flour and white bread would look better. Thus, they removed the bran, making white flour and depriving themselves from the vitamins and protein it had. And this is how we got white flour.

Now, for a balanced diet, we need to eat little of all 5 food groups that we all learned about in school: grains, vegetables and fruits, meat and protein, dairy and fats, oils and sweets. I'm not being a 7-year-old, it's just true! So, we need to eat grains (bread, pasta, rice) on a regular basis. But the bread and pasta we buy is not healthy at all, it has all kinds of additives and thickening agents that destroy all their benefits and make them bad for your health. This is why I don't eat bread, because it's bad for me. But if I make it and I know what it has in it and it's healthy, then why not?

Here's how you do it, it's extremely easy. For a 600 gr bread, you need:
3 and a half cups of whole wheat flour
1 package dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt (I use a salt substitute)
1 and a half cup warm water

1. Mix the flour with the yeast. Add the salt and mix together.
2. Add the water and mix together with a spoon or with your hands, but WITHOUT kneading.
3. Cover with plastic wrap, but not airtight, let it breathe. Leave it at room temperature for 2 hours.
4. Refrigerate over night.

The next day,
1. Dust the dough with some flour and form a ball or an oval shaped dough.
2. Leave the dough to rest for another 90 minutes, on a baking sheet sprayed with some oil and covered with some plastic wrap, but again not airtight.
3. THIRTY minutes before baking, preheat your oven at 230 C or 450 F.
4. Cut the bread about 1 cm deep with a serrated knife, like in the photos.
5. Paint the top of the bread with a little water, then add your mix of seeds.

Here I used 1 tablespoon of pumpkin, poppy and flax seeds. Not only it looks amazing, but it also tastes like Heaven, it's great for sandwiches, the crust is crispy and the core fluffy, and it's healthy too! I'm very happy with it and I can't wait to make another one, another recipe, maybe a baguette or some hamburger buns! Mmm delicious! Probably in a few days.

 I hope you enjoy this bread and consider (if you're not yet) eating and living a healthy life.