Bread baking Day #46

Although I'm a pretty faithful participant of the Bread Baking Day event initiated by Zorra, I missed the last two editions without it even crossing my mind... must have had a lot of other things on my mind I guess. But this time I'm glad to be able to participate again and give you my entry.

This month the Bread Baking Day is hosted by Noor from "Ya salam cooking" and she asked us to bake a bread from a place we would love to visit. Well that needed some thought. There are so many places I still would love to visit: Egypt to see the piramides, New York to feel tiny between the sky scrapers, Australia to see Ayers Rock and visit my sister, South Africa to experience the wonderful landscapes, New Zealand to visit the Lord of the Rings spots, North America to see the Rocky Mountains, South America to drive through Patagonia, ... the list is endless really.

A country that has been a wish for long too is Iceland, for it's unique landscape with vulcano's, plains, hot springs. I somehow have always seen myself riding a horse over the plains there... though that'll never happen, as I don't know how to ride a horse and I'll never will as I'm extremely allergic to horses. But a Jeep will do too. So I finally decided on Iceland. Now for a recipe... and what better place to look than the books by Beatrice Ojankangas, that specializes in recipes from countries to the north of us. There I found a lovely recipe, light and fluffy, with some texture and perfect for sandwiches. Thanks Noor for this wonderful theme and for letting me dream again about the beautiful world around us.

Grofarbraud
(Icelandic multi-grain bread)
(makes 2 loaves)

(PRINT recipe)

1 cup cracked wheat/bulgur (or mix it with flax seed, millet, sesame seeds)
500 g boiling water
4 tsp dry active yeast
2 TBsp light or dark brown sugar
1,5 tsp salt
2 TBsp vegetable oil
5 to 6 (about 700 - 800 g) cups bread flour

Topping: mixture of flax seeds, sunflower and pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds

Put the cup of bulgur (or mix) in a large bowl and pour the boiling water over it. Stir and let it stand for over hour.

Place the yeast, sugar, salt and 600 g of bread flour in a large bowl. Add the cooled bulgur/seed soaker and the oil and stir it in. Cover and let stand for 15 minutes. Start kneading the dough with your dough hook in the machine (or by hand) and add enough extra flour to make a souple and elastic dough, that cleans the sides of the bowl. Shape into a ball, place in a greased bowl and cover. Let rise until doubled (about 1 - 1,5 hours).

Divide the dough in two equal parts, shape them in torpedo shapes. Make the seed mixture (enough to coat the two loaves) and spread them on a flat surface. Wet the top of the loaf and press it into the seed mixture. Repeat with the second loaf.

Place both loaves on a baking sheet with baking parchment, leaving space betweem them so they can rise. Cover with greased plastic and let rise until almost doubled.

In the meantime preheat the oven to 400ºF/200ºC, preferably with a oven stone in the oven.

Make some diagonal slashes on top of the loaves. Slide them onto the hot baking stone (or in the middle of the oven on the sheet) and mist the oven with water or pour some hot water in a also preheated metal tin on the bottom of the oven to create steam. Bake them for 30-35 minutes until brown and done.

(adapted from: “The great Scandinavian baking book” - Beatrice Ojakangas)