Sunday, February 27, 2011

100-mile diet Bread for Edmontonians

Whole Wheat, Flax and Hemp Honey Bread
I've been meaning to bake a "Local Edmonton" loaf of bread for a while. Finally did it! All the ingredients were sourced from Alberta Avenue Farmer's Market vendors; all of whom live within the 100 mile diet parameters to downtown Edmonton.  

In the recipe, the ingredients marked with an * are the only ones I couldn't easily locally source. 

A big thanks to the Farmers who made this fantastic evening snack a reality:

John Schneider @ Gold Forest Grains grew the organic golden flax seeds and milled the organic whole grain flour
Arie Neufeld @Ma-Be Farms fed the chickens which brought me some beautiful eggs.
"Hemp Guy" (I'll remember his name sometime tonight)  sold me the locally grown and hulled hemp seeds.
Joseph and Christine Kent @ Coal Lake Honey Farm harvested then sold me some tasty, well priced honey.

The Recipe: 
(makes 1 loaf)

1. Heat oven to 375 F.

2. Mix EVERYTHING together (I'm not fussy about order of ingredients and neither seems to be my yeast):

- 3 C whole wheat flour
- 1/2 T instant yeast*
- 1/2 t salt *
- 1/4 C hulled hemp seeds (or substitute other seeds, but these are so high in omega 3s!)
- 1/4 C golden flax seeds
- 3 T vital wheat gluten (sold where most 'Red Mill' products are sold)*
- 2 T honey
- 1 egg
- 1 1/4 C luke warm water
3. When too stiff to mix, knead for another 2 minutes. Add water or extra flour if needed to make an elastic, smooth dough.

4. Leave it to "rest" for 5 minutes.

5. Shape into loaf or buns. Let rise up to 2 hours.

6. Bake for 40 minutes or until golden on top and hollow sounding (when you flick it)

7. Slice, slather with butter and enjoy.

For more Bread Making 101 tips check out this PDF I developed for my workshops.

If I had let it 'cold rise' in the fridge for a few days, I think I'd have had a little more rise. But I was happy with this considering its 100% whole wheat (this is mostly thanks to the vital wheat gluten!)

9 comments:

Ashley @ Root And Twig said...

This looks so delicious. And forgive me, but the loaf uncut looks like a pregnant lady's belly. ha!

goldforestfarms.blogspot.ca said...

Most people using this true whole grain flour are finding success with adding maybe a quarter more yeast and some extra kneading. Laurel at Queen of Tarts and Owen at Prairie Mill Bread both told me to add a little more hydration than usual also. I am getting our bread dough to double in about an hour when rising and that is without added gluten. I think that because this flour is not sifted, there is just that extra amount of bran and germ that interfere with the protein. A little tweaking and you'll get better results with your rising I am confident. More important than anything though...how did it taste? It looks great.

Carissa Halton said...

THanks for the tips John- Queen of Tarts is certainly someone who knows bread! I'll continue to experiment and report back. THe biggest difference I notice with your flour is that it is a lot finer than even the white flour I generally use. In this recipe, however, I didn't use any more water than usual and it seemed to work fine. The flavour- with the hemp and flax- was really superb. It was much lighter than 100 % whole wheat bread I usually make.

Carissa Halton said...

Hey Andrea- yes! you are so right about the belly look. I shaped it as a donut. Perhaps it was a subconscious kudos to my Cook Off friend Katy--- "Way to push another one out, girlfriend!"

Wynn Ann said...

This looks like a good bake, & since I have all the ingred. at home I will try it today...thanks for shareing.

Carissa Halton said...

Let me know how it goes, Wynn Ann!

Wynn Ann said...

Hey Carrisa, I tried the bread twice & it was a hit both times. It was my first time following a recepie in a long time....I most always alter every thing I get my hands on. I did kneed it in my bread machine & then baked it in my oven. I split the dough in half & got two for the prise of one.Baked it for 20 min. Had to cover the top with foil to keep it from browning too fast. Just yesterday I made a batch of buns with it.....went great with the Chilli. The next bath I will add a T. of molasses.... Till next time.......Thanks for shareing....

Fiona said...

What a great post:) and I love Gold Forest Grains too:)

Your blog has been very inspiring to me ..to the point where my husband and I will be looking for our little "urban homestead next Spring. We'll be renting but I'm hoping our future landlords will be open to use having a huge garden and may even have a fruit tree or two already:)

Carissa Halton said...

Hope you find a great space, Happy Soles! Perhaps we will run into each other on Alberta Avenue? Great community if you're in Edmonton(: