A mid December long weekend is well placed for some home baking (and my first steps with the new Gutenberg editor). Today I’m planning to make some Bremer Klaben and possibly some bread. Tomorrow I’ll definitely make some bread. Yesterday I improvised some Wholemeal Fruit Bread:

The ingredients:

• 300g strong stoneground wholemeal bread flour
• 150g strong white bread flour
• 250g mixed fruit (sultanas, currants, raisins, candied mixed peel)
• ~15-20ml Sicilian Lemon Extract
• 6g ready zest / powdered lemon peel (yes, I’m lazy)
• ~10g fast action bread yeast
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 pint warm water

Mix, knead, let rise as appropriate, then bake at 220ºC (fan assisted oven) for just over 35 minutes.

Eating it this morning while writing this blog post, tastes nice, fresh and fruity. And I’m starting to get used to the new Gutenberg WordPress editor. I’m beginning to grasp the block concept and I think with a little bit more experience I’m going to like it.

It was time for some baking again last Sunday (but I only find time to blog about it today), time for another experiment. I decided to make an alternative version of the Hemp and Almond Bread I first made back in June (and have made again since), mainly replacing the almonds with walnuts. But as the walnuts came in a slightly strange packet size I also played around with some the of volumes.

These are the ingredients I used (I decided to also include some sunflower seeds):

• 400g strong stoneground wholemeal bread flour
• 200g strong white bread flour
• 125g hemp seed hearts
• 130g walnut halves
• 50g sunflower seeds
• ~15g fast action bread yeast
• 3 table spoons olive oil
• 400ml of warm water

Mix, knead, let rise as appropriate, then bake at 220ºC (fan assisted oven) for just over 30 minutes.

Taste test? Similar to the almond version, a nice slightly nutty taste, as expected from the hemp and the walnuts. Crunchy when you bite on a walnut. Also tastes very nice toasted.

Decided to experiment with some bread baking again. While doing my shopping yesterday I spotted some ‘Hemp Seed Hearts’ (described as ‘pure unrefined hemp seed kernels with a delicious light nutty flavour’ and that among other things they are perfect for baking), so I bought some to use them in some bread to be baked for the weekend.

(click on the pictures for larger versions)

These are the ingredients I used (I decided to also include some almonds):

• 300g strong stoneground wholemeal bread flour
• 150g strong white bread flour
• 75g hemp seed hearts
• 75g toasted chopped almonds
• ~10g fast action bread yeast
• 2 table spoons olive oil
• 1/2 pint of warm water

Mix, knead, let rise as appropriate, then bake at 220ºC (fan assisted oven) for just over 30 minutes.

Taste test?

Has a nice light nutty smell. Taste also light nutty (as promised), bread turned out quite light but also crunchy with the seeds and the almonds. Yes, I’ll almost certainly make this again.