Whole Wheat Spinach Country Bread

The aroma of freshly baked bread is most comforting ever.

“There is not a thing that is more positive than bread.” – Fyodor Dostoevsky

It is cold again after a brief spell of warm days, not that I’m complaining but how eagerly I’m waiting for spring. Waiting for the trees to bear fruit, grass to turn green, flowers to bloom all over and the days to become longer. Ok Ok, yes I’m just waiting for long warm days and to get into those sexy summer clothes.

Come warmer days and I need to work on my garden as well, will get some flowers, plant some vegetables and of course my favorite herbs.

Beautiful warm days, bbq fired up, some crisp wine and gorgeous rustic bread to go along is what I’m dreaming of right now.

So you guys I baked this Whole Wheat Spinach Country Bread over the weekend and I have to say it turned out so good. With all the goodness of whole wheat, flax seeds, spinach this bread is surely a keeper. With spinach hidden it is also a great way to feed the veggies to our kids who want to be away from the greens, but I am blessed as A & A eat their veggies without any fuss. This bread is just perfect with soups, stews and makes great sandwiches. Or just toast and top with butter or homemade strawberry chili jam (our favorite) or mashed avocado with soft boiled eggs or maybe some grape tomatoes. Simply spread some ricotta and top with sautéed mushroom and kale or maybe some pesto with grilled chicken, roasted red peppers and feta and the list is just endless. So let your imagination run wild.

You know you will have to bake this one, this bread is seriously so good. The recipe is very simple, few basic ingredients, stand mixer (if you do not have a stand mixer use your hands) and you have got yourself a bread which has that beautiful brown crust and is soft on the inside. The recipe here uses milk powder is what makes the bread soft and gives that beautiful brown color to the crust due to the caramalization of milk sugars.

A winner!!

And what made this bread even more prettier is the proofing basket that I recently bought. It give that gorgeous shape to the dough and those flour rings on the crust is what makes the bread so good and you have a great loaf.

With the recipe I made a 10 inch boule but you always do ahead divide the dough and make two boules.

Happy Bread Baking!!

Until next time

Xo,

Whole Wheat Spinach Country Bread

Whole Wheat country Bread with the goodness of spinach and flax.

1 cup Spinach blanched and chopped fine
2 cups Bread Flour
11/2 cup Whole Wheat Flour
21/2 tsp Instant Yeast (SAF Red)
2 tbsp Ground Flax Seeds
1/4 cup Dry Milk Powder
2 tbsp Honey
2 tbsp Olive Oil
11/2 tsp Salt
11/4 cup Luke Warm Water

Blanch the spinach and let it cool completely. Chop and set aside.
In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment add the whole wheat flour, bread flour, instant yeast, salt, honey, milk powder, ground flax, spinach, water and mix on low speed and let it rest for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes switch to dough hook and begin to knead on low speed for about 3 – 4 minutes. slowly add the olive oil and continue to knead on speed 2 for further 5 – 6 minutes until smooth dough forms and no longer sticky. You can always knead the dough for 10 -12 minutes if kneading by hands.
Take the dough out of the mixer on a lightly floured surface and form a ball and place in a well oiled bowl. Cover with a plastic wrap and put it in a warm place to rise for about 1 1/2 hour or until doubled in size.
After the rise remove the dough on a floured surface and pat to break any large air bubbles and form a rectangle. Stretch one end of the dough fold over and seal, repeat with the remaining three sides. The folded dough should be like an envelope. Set aside for 10 minutes.
Again pat the dough to release any air bubbles. Gently fold the edges of the dough towards the centre and seal and turn the dough over with seam side on bottom. With your hands start pulling the dough towards you, repeat till it forms a nice round tight ball dough. Always be gentle while handling dough as we do not want to completely deflate the dough.
Flour your 10 inch proofing basket and place the dough in it with smooth top side down and loosely cover with a floured plastic wrap. Set aside in warm place for 1 hour to rise.
When its 45 minutes to baking preheat the oven to 400 F. Place the baking tray on the middle rack and a cast iron pan (we will place ice cubes on it to create steam) on the bottom when preheating the oven.
After the dough has risen, gently turn the bread out the proofing basket on the pizza paddle and gently with a sharp razor make a criss cross about 1/2 inch deep on the top of the dough. Transfer the bread onto the preheated baking tray. And very quickly place 4 -5 ice cubes on the cast iron pan.
Bake for 30 -35 minutes or until golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped.
Cool completely on wire rack before slicing.