Crazy Little Thing Called Bread

It's whole wheat, nutty and delicious. It's made with olive oil, honey and oatmeal. It's also a little, just a scotch, practically not at all...flat. Yes, you read right, my bread did not rise. Does that mean I'm giving up on it? Not on your life! What kind of self-respecting amateur baker and lover-of-all-things-baked would I be if I threw the dough out? No, right now it's sitting in the oven thinking about how tasty it's going to be for lunch tomorrow. I, myself, have learned a valuable lesson about making substitutions in a new recipe.

A couple months ago I went to New Jersey to celebrate my Grandpa's 90th birthday (hi Grandpa!), and while I was there enjoying my family (and the Cape May County Zoo - small but might) I learned that I had been offered a job in DC. With benefits! There was much joy and celebrating that week, and a little premature thanksgiving, and so when I hopped of the train at Dupont Circle I walked straight into Kramer Books and bought myself a cookbook I've been dying to have - Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights. Yes, that is seriously the title. This book is packed with delectable recipes and lovely photos of the food and Miss Sophie Dahl herself, in all her glory. She divides the book into seasons and meals, intermingled with stories of her childhood and young adult life. It's a book that really makes use of seasonal, whole vegetables. Part of my food philosophy (not my dessert philosophy) is to get delicious whole foods and do almost nothing to them - this book embraces that idea (grilled vegetables with halloumi cheese, cinnamon roast peaches with vanilla yogurt) , as well as urging me to get a little more creative (brown rice risotto with pumpkin, marscapone, sage and almonds, chicken stew with green olives). This book is, for the moment, all alone on my bookshelf, but it's so lovely that it needs no company at all.

One of the recipes that caught my today was Musician's Bread, an ostensibly quick and easy whole wheat recipe that only rises for 40 minutes (!!) and only cooks for an hour (!!). It's a perfect week night recipe if you're dying to bake (and with the weather turning colder, I'm absolutely dying to bake). Unfortunately, all did not go as perfectly as I had hoped it would. First of all, Safeway doesn't have instant yeast, rolled oats, or sunflower oil. I substituted: active dry yeast, steel-cut oatmeal and olive oil. I also added (hubris, my friends, hubris) sunflower and pumpkin seeds, because there is almost nothing I love better than whole wheat bread stuffed with nutty, protein-rich seeds. It is an extremely easy recipe, you don't have to let the yeast sit, you don't have to mix much. Just add the wet ingredients to the dry, and let it rise. Well, ladies and gents, the rising bit didn't happen. It's been sitting in the oven for an hour and ten minutes and I have no idea -- ok, now it's out of the oven. This blogging in real-time is fun, right? OK! The bread is heavy, really thick and a little gummy, but also rich, cooked through and delicious. This is really a peasant bread, the crust is thick and hearty. So delicious with raspberry jam! I'm looking forward to eating it for breakfast with peanut butter and honey, and for lunch with turkey, cheese, sprouts and mustard :)

Nutty, Chewy, Whole Wheat Bread
(Modified from Musician's bread found in Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights by Miss Sophie Dahl)

4 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
1 Cup Steel Cut Oats
1 Packet Active Dry Yeast
1 Tablespoon Sea Salt
1/3 to 1/2 Cups Sunflower and Pumpkin seeds 
1 Tablespoon Honey
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
2 1/2 Cups Warm Water

Oil a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan with olive oil.

In a medium bowl stir together the dry ingredients and the seeds. In a small bowl mix together the wet ingredients. Pour the wet into the dry and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon until the flour has been all soaked up.

Place in a warm spot covered with a towel for 20 minutes, then mix thoroughly again with the wooden spoon. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Drop the dough into the loaf pan and press gently into the corners (also with the spoon). Let it rest under the towel for another 20 minutes. Pop it into the oven for about an hour (but maybe more like an hour and 10, which is how long mine took), then dump it onto a cutting board and cover with a towel. Slice, slather with jam, eat. Repeat.