Vegan Harvest Wheat Bread

The languid monsoon has failed to reach here. Cloudy nights and humid days have become a disappointing norm. Sometimes an unexpected drizzle makes the weather temporarily pleasant and leaves with a craving for some more- but in futility, as the sun shines through the clouds or the stars peep through the holes in the clouds.

 This season we had a lot of birds visiting the bird bath. Perhaps the only solace ……A shy barbet has been coming to the birdbath every day. Hiding in the branches of the mango tree, it would inspect the place and then fly away. Few days back, it showed great gumption and we saw it enjoying bathing and splashing water.

Pitter patter of a mild drizzle, cool breeze, and aroma of bread baking is a great combination and a great recipe for good mood. I baked a Harvest Wheat Bread last week.

The bread is delicious, sweet and has the grittiness of cracked wheat and crunch of sunflower seeds.

You can add your own favourite seeds as well. We also add flax seeds sometimes.

Add 1/4 cup flax seeds  to the dough ingredients in place of sunflower seeds.

Harvest Wheat Bread

Adapted from kingarthurflour.com

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• ¼ cup cracked wheat
• ¼ cup sunflower seeds (or, seeds of choice)
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon instant dry yeast
• 1 cup boiling water
• ¼ cup warm water.

Instructions

1. Add cracked wheat to boiling water, cover and let it sit for half an hour. It will become soft. Add remaining ¼ cup warm water, sugar and yeast and leave it covered for 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl. Whisk together all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, salt, sunflower seeds, and oil. Add cracked wheat and yeast mixture and knead for 6 to 8 minutes to get a soft and supple dough.
3. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Oil one 8 ½ x 4 ½ inch loaf pan.
4. Transfer the dough to a floured counter. 
5. Roll out the dough into a rectangle not bigger than the width of the pan you are using. Roll the dough towards you, tightly. Pinch seams to seal. Place the roll in the greased loaf tin with the seam side down. Cover and keep it to rise for 1 ½ hour in a warm place. Or until, it has crowned 1 inch above the lip of the pan.
6. Bake in the preheated oven at 180 degrees C for 35 to 45 minutes or till the top turns brown and the bottom of the pan sounds empty when tapped. If the loaf is browning too quickly, tent the loaf loosely with a foil.
7. Remove from the loaf tin after 10 minutes. Cool in the rack.
8. Slice the next day.