My paternal grandparents raised seven children during the "baby boom" years of the fifties and sixties. Grandma was a stay at home mother and did her best to keep her rambunctious brood of four boys and three girls clean, clothed, and fed. My grandfather worked for the Mesa Public Schools for over thirty years and often money was tight- which meant that Grandma needed to stretch their dollars as far as she could. In order to do so, she would make her children's clothes (textile jobs weren't outsourced then and fabric was still cheap), plant a vegetable garden, and bake bread- about 6 or more loaves a week.
The story goes that the kids were really sick and tired of Grandma's whole grain bread. They wanted the white, store bought bread that all of their classmates were eating at school. There must have been a lot of grumbling, because my grandfather decided to call a family counsel and sit everyone down for a little demonstration. According to my father, Grandpa took one slice of Grandma's homemade bread and one slice of the store bought bread and scrunched them in his hands. The kids were all amazed to see the white slice of bread crumble into smithereens and they determined that it was mostly made up of air. Grandma's slice had all the substance. It smelled better, weighed more, and didn't completely disappear during Grandpa's experiment. Clearly the kids were all convinced- never to complain again, right? Nah. They still complained. But the point was made and well taken- at least by the grandaughter who would hear this story twenty or so years later.
I was thinking about my grandmother as I was making bread for my own family today. We don't get much complaining about homemade bread in this household (probably because everyone knows it's a rare occurrence). I happened to find a recipe for a seeded french bread out of this
cookbook that has really been a pleasure to use. Not one of the recipes has let me down- including this bread recipe- which I'd like to share with you.
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loaves about to come out of the oven
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Seeded French Bread
by Jocele Meyer, Fresno, Ohio
from Simply in Season Cookbook
Ingredients:
4 cups/ 1 L whole wheat bread flour (I used only 2 cups of ww flour)
2 cups/ 500 ml bread flour
2 Tbsps active dry yeast
2 Tbsp sugar (I like to use Sucanat or honey)
1 tsp salt
Mix together in a large mixing bowl.
2 1/2 cups/ 625 ml hot water
2 Tbsp olive oil
Gradually add. Mix well. Add more flour if needed to make a soft dough. Knead 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Place in a greased bowl, turn to grease both sides, cover with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled in bulk. Punch down and let rest for 20 minutes. Divide into 3 parts; shape each into an oblong loaf. Place on greased baking sheet that has been sprinkled with cornmeal. Make 4-5 diagonal slices on the top of each loaf.
1 egg
2 Tbsp water
Beat together in a small bowl. Brush on the loaves.
1-2 Tbsp fennel seeds, sesame seeds or poppy seeds
Sprinkle over each loaf. Let rise until double. Bake in preheated oven at 400 f/ 200 C for 20 minutes.
My notes:
I have a Kitchen-aid and especially like to use it when making bread. Just put on that dough hook and it does all the work for you (well, the "hard labor" of kneading, anyways). I first combine the yeast, sugar, salt, and warm water into the Kitchen-aid bowl and let it sit until the yeast starts to bubble (just a few minutes). Then slowly I add the flour until the dough begins to form a ball and looks soft and elastic (I put my Kitchen-aid on 2 while I add about a cup of flour at a time, making sure the flour is all mixed up in the dough before adding more). Once the dough comes off the hook easily without sticking to it, I take it out of the bowl and knead it for a little bit- ten times or so. Then I grease a large bowl and put the dough inside and cover with a dish towel until the dough doubles in size. This could take an half hour or so (the warmer the kitchen, the faster the dough will rise).
After the dough has risen, punch down (to get all of the gases from the yeast out) and then shape into loaves. Next, let the dough rest for another 20 minutes.
Brush the egg yoke mixture onto the top of loaves, cut with serrated knife and then slide into the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
You'll see in the picture that I use a stone when baking bread. We have a couple that we have probably inherited over the years. For a while, I was rather serious about sourdough bread making. I'd use the stones sprinkled with cornmeal and also place a pan of water in the oven to achieve the right amount of moisture to crisp up the bread (which you could do with this recipe if you want to experiment). The stones distribute the heat thoroughly throughout the dough, but a greased cookie sheet will work just fine, too- if that's what you have on hand.
Bake for 20 minutes. Take out of the oven and let the loaves cool for a bit. Then enjoy every mouth-watering bite!
Bon appetite.
