Homemade Bread by Jim!

Music: The Weepies, Say I Am You

Today's smoothie: fresh curly organic parsley, 1 banana, bit o'avocado, frozen blackberries and strawberries.

I got another great book from the Troy Public Library (thanks, Connie!) the other day called My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method by Jim Lahey. I've been wanting to bake our own bread and Jim jumped right on this. He is now baking all of our bread! It's so cheap (about 50 cents worth of ingredients per loaf) and if Jim (who works 40 hours a week and takes 3 classes at Walsh College) can do this, anyone can.

I'm a lucky girl. And I know it.

Jim's Seedy Salt Bread

1 1/2 C white spelt flour

1 1/2 C stone ground whole wheat flour

1 1/4 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp active dry yeast

1 1/2 C water (enough for dough to be wet and very sticky; add a bit more if it's not)

1/4 C raw sunflower seeds

2 tbsp whole flax seeds

1/4 C old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick cooking)

Combine all in a large mixing bowl. Cover bowl with cotton tea towel (not terry cloth) or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm, undrafty place for 18-24 hours. We put ours on top of the refrigerator.

Remove dough and place on lightly floured cutting board or very clean counter. Jim added a sprinkling of coarse sea salt to the board, too. Fold into an envelope shape and wrap in tea towel. Jim sprinkled with additional coarse sea salt and flour before wrapping in the towel. Let rise 2 more hours.

After 90 minutes, preheat oven with cast iron pan and lid in oven for 30 minutes. We borrowed an ancient one from my mother rather than buy a new one; so far it has worked wonderfully well. When dough is ready, carefully flip into the hot cast iron pan and cover with lid. Be very careful as the pan will be EXTREMELY hot. Bake for 30 minutes covered. Then remove lid and bake for another 30 minutes. Remove from cast iron pan and let cool on cooling rack for at least 1 hour.

To store bread, place in paper bag on counter and use within 3 days. If you're not going to use it up, freeze all or half of it, which is what we usually do. That way, our bread never goes bad and it's never wasted.

Isn't it beautiful?