I’ve been on the bread baking journey for nearly six years, and whilst I’ve tried many different types of seeded bread (both purchased and made by my fellow bakers) this was one of the first seeded loaves I baked myself. It took a couple of experiments to get a seed mixture and technique nailed. And turns out that it’s very easy and virtually the same as other bread recipes I’ve used …

Which Seeds And Wholemeal Flour To Use?

There are a plethora of seeds to choose from. For the first try I went with sunflower, pumpkin, flax and chai (listed below). I also tried a loaf where I swapped out the flax for toasted sesame seeds. I kept the nut weight to around 100g, regardless of the combination, this seemed to make a well-balanced loaf.

As for the flour, the best wholemeal flour I have found is made by Dunster Mill. It’s a fully restored and operational 18th century watermill within a National Trust property in Somerset, England. Sadly, it’s a bit of a drive from where I live to get there, so I use Waitrose own brand wholemeal flour as a substitute.

Equipment

An inexpensive water sprayer is invaluable when baking most breads. It’s used to moisten both dough and oven. Available online (our recommended sprayer) or in hardware stores.

Ingredients

In the recipe below I use a 1:2 ratio of wholemeal to strong white flour, if you prefer a stronger flavour of wholemeal simply adjust the ratio. You may need to increase the water volume if you go with 100% wholemeal flour. The seed weights can also be adjusted to your preference.

• 400g strong white flour
• 200g wholemeal flour
• 30g sunflower seeds
• 30g pumpkin seeds
• 20g flax seeds
• 20g chai seeds
• 500ml warm water (325ml cold + 175ml boiling)
• 1 sachet dry instant yeast (or 2 tsp from a jar)
• 2 tsp table salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp olive oil

Method

1. Combine the flour, salt, yeast, sugar and seeds into the bowl. Add the water and mix together to form a wet dough. Cover the bowl and rest the dough for 25-30 mins.
2. Turn the dough out of the bowl onto a lightly oiled worksurface. Stretch and knead the dough for 15 seconds then return to the bowl and cover the bowl. Leave for 25-30 mins.
3. Repeat previous step twice on a floured (not oiled) worksurface.
4. Leave the dough until it has increased in volume by about 50%. Then turn it onto a floured worksurface and shape it by rolling a little.
5. Place the dough in a loaf tin or banneton, seam side down. Cover the dough and leave until risen by 50%. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 200°C (220°C for non-fan, using non-fan is recommended). Or hotter if using a pizza stone with a banneton.
6. Score the top of dough with knife, spray it with water and add moisture to the oven.
7. Bake for 30-35 minutes at 200°C fan/220°C non-fan, until the crust is a golden brown. Then cool the freshly baked loaf on a rack.

Hints, Tips and Pictures

1. A Dutch oven (normal way up or inverted) can also be used to bake the bread. In fact …
2. … this can also be cooked in a Big Green Egg using leftover latent heat energy. Which is what I did for the pictures in this article.