Artisan Bread - Nutty Three Grain Sourdough

We spent a few weeks in Germany this fall (we were there for the birth of our 8th grandchild) and while there very much enjoyed the bakeries with their panoply of perfect pastries and artisan loaves.  I was also intrigued at the variety of flours you could buy at the grocery store.  One flour in particular intrigued me.  It was made with a combination of rye and wheat and had sunflower seeds in it as well.  The bread we made with it was a hearty loaf--dense, dark, nutty, and flavorful.  I decided to try to duplicate and improve on that taste at home without the premixed variety flour to help me out.  I also wanted to try the technique of baking the bread in a dutch oven inside our own oven.  It seems that when you bake bread inside a small closed space like a dutch oven the lid traps the steam from the baking which accumulates at the surface of the crust.  Then, in the last 10 minutes you take the lid off and that final bake browns the crust, evaporates the surface moisture and leaves a delightfully crackling crunchy crust.  

I decided on a sourdough bread (click here for information on sourdough starters) and used mostly rye flour, but added wheat and oat (rolled oats blended to a powder) as well.  I also roasted 5 types of seeds and nuts (walnut, pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, and flax) and then worked them into the dough.  The resulting bread tasted better than I hoped and made some truly gourmet sandwiches.  

Here's how to make this delicious bread:

• 1 cup Sourdough starter
• 1.5 cups Water (or try kefir or buttermilk)
• 1 Tbsp Salt
• 4 cups Rye Flour - freshly ground (plus more to get the right consistency)
• 1 cup Whole Wheat Flour - freshly ground
• 1 cup Rolled Oats - blended to flour
• 1/4 cup Vital Wheat Gluten
• 1/4 cup Walnuts - chopped
• 1/8 cup Sunflower Seeds
• 1/8 cup Flax Seeds
• 1/8 cup Pumpkin Seeds
• 1/8 cup Sesame Seeds

Mix the liquid into the sourdough starter and stir in the salt.  Add the gluten, the wheat and oat flours, and mix well.  Add the rye flour and blend in a cup at a time until you get a dense sticky dough (may take more or less than 4 cups depending on your area's humidity--this will give you a workout if your mixing by hand--you can also use a bread mixer with a dough hook).  Let this dough rest while you roast the nuts and seeds.  Put them in a thick bottomed pan on medium heat and stir often until the flax and pumpkin seeds begin to pop.  Add the roasted seeds to
the dough and mix them in.  Knead the dough into a big ball and roll it in more rye flour, then place it in a dutch oven lined with parchment paper.  Make some very shallow decorative slices (a cross was traditional in European cultures because Jesus had called himself "the bread of life").  Slightly warm your oven, turn it off, turn on the oven light, and put the dutch oven inside to raise.  Because it's sourdough it will take 3 to 4 hours but this slow raise just enhances the delicious flavor of the bread.  Once it's doubled in size bake it with the lid on the dutch oven for 30 minutes at 425 degrees fahrenheit.  Then remove the dutch oven's lid and bake for 10 more minutes to brown the crust.

By the way, the sandwich pictured at the top is vegetarian and amazingly delicious--especially with this bread.  For the sandwich I spread some homemade pesto sauce on one side and mayonnaise on the other.  Then I added sliced avocado, tomato, onion, red peppers, cucumber, and romaine lettuce.  I topped it with salt and pepper and served it immediately.  It was an amazing dinner.

Try them--they're good for your and you'll love the taste!