This is a medium grained bread with lots of stuff in it. It's impossible to resist hot out of the oven, and probably won't last long. This was a "no recipe" bread that turned out fantastic. I ate 3 slices immediately and had to make myself stop.
INGREDIENTS
- 1/2 cup sourdough starter (about the consistency of yoghurt)
- 1 tablespoon yeast
- 1 egg
- about 1/3 cup warm water
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 cups white flour (and more if needed)
- 3 tablespoons molasses
- 1/4 cup light cream
- 1/3 cup chopped dates. The kind that come floured and look like rabbit food.
- 1/2 cup shelled raw pumpkin seeds. The kind that are still greenish.
- 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons dry milk powder
- 1/4 cup milled flax seed (for omega-3, you can leave this out if you don't have it)
- 1/3 cup wheat germ (or whatever one heaping capful of the large jar is)
- 1/4 tsp. cardamom
- cinnamon sugar for the top
- Mix the starter, 1 cup white flour, sugar, egg and yeast. Add enough water to make the whole thing the consistency of cake mix... or yogurt. Let the mixture sit until it becomes foamy and smells yeasty. This "proofs" the yeast; shows that it is working and lets it develop and grow.
- Add everything else except the white flour and cinnamon sugar. Mix until blended well.
- Mix more white flour in. When you can't mix it in, pour it on the counter and knead it in, gently at first. Vary the flour as needed.
- Knead by hand until the loaf bounces back when poked. About 5 min.
- shape it so it's round, then make it into a log... press it into a butter/crisco'd loaf pan. (solid shortening works better than oil for bread pans)
- Shake cinnamon sugar liberally on top.
- Let rise for about an hour.
- Bake at 350 for 40 min.
(My first house really looked like that in the winter!)
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