From the Deaf Smith Country Cookbook, this Sunflower Bread is my favourite whole wheat bread recipe ever.
It’s softer and fluffier than the Phyllis’ Bread that we also published yesterday and I love the sunflower seeds in the flavour. Sesame seeds are a nice addition as well.
*edit October 28, 2021 – You’ll notice that this recipe calls for milk, as does the Purity Flour White Bread, in both cases, I often use the milk to make ricotta, and then use the whey from the cheese making for the bread.
It’s a nice bonus to have the fresh cheese along with the bread, and I find that the bread is lighter without the milk solids, or at least I feel this is true.
NB. This is a recipe that I have been making for 43 years. While I can’t swear that the times have changed since I first began making it, I have observed that currently, the time to sufficient rising is at least 1/3 less, and sometimes has been 1/2 of the time stated in the original recipe (which is unchanged below).
This is likely due in part to better yeasts, and less drafty houses, and may have something
to do with the use of whey, rather than milk when I make it.
Lately, I have been using some locally grown hard wheat flour in it…I would use ONLY that, but it’s $60 per 10lb sack, so it’s an addition…about 1:5 ratio. This is unlikely to have affected the rising time however, as I believe the book recommends hard wheat flour to be used exclusively in making bread.
As to the 10 minute proofing stage for dry yeast, I have completely abandoned that based on my experience with this recipe. It’s a pointless leftover from the days of cake yeast.
That said, if you are USING cake yeast, which I still see for sale from time to time, keep proofing!
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp Dry Active Yeast
- 6 Cups Whole Wheat Flour Divided into 2 cups and 4 cups.
- 2.5 Cups Milk
- 1 Tbsp Sea Salt
- 2 Tbsp Unrefined Oil Or butter.
- 1/3 Cup Raw Honey
- 1 Cup Hulled Sunflower Seeds Or chopped pumpkin seeds, or raisins
Instructions
- In a large bowl mix 2 cups of the flour with the yeast.
- Mix the remaining 4 cups of flour with the optional ingredients (sunflower seeds, chopped pumpkin seeds, or raisins).
- Heat the milk, salt, oil, and honey to lukewarm. Add the liquid to the flour/yeast combination and beat for 2 minutes.
- Add the remaining flour and the seeds or raisins, and work in by hand. Knead the dough for 5 - 10 minutes on a floured board.
- Place the dough in an oiled bowl, turning to coat the dough. Cover and let rise for 2 hours.
- Punch the dough down. Divide in half and shape into two loaves. Place in oiled loaf pans. Cover and let rise until double...about an hour.
- Bake 40 - 45 minutes at 375º. Cover loosely with foil during the last 15 minutes of baking. Turn loaves out on the rack to cool.
Notes
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