Everyday Epicurean

_Today’s bread is a wholemeal and millet flour seed loaf with a nice textured top._

_The last loaf I made also contained wholemeal flour and had a lovely wholesome flavour (assisted by the rye flour), so this time I decided to substitute millet flour for the rye and add a few more seeds (pepitos as well as the sunflower seeds). The result at looks quite good (haven’t cut it yet)._

!/recipes/images/24.jpg (Wholemeal Millet Seed Loaf)!

h2. Ingredients.

h3. Stage 1.

* 2.5 cups of warm water
* 1.5 Tablespoons of Active Dry Yeast
* 2 Tablespoons of Sugar (white is fine)
* 1 cup of Millet Flour
* 1 cup of Wholemeal wheat flour

h3. Stage 2.

* 0.5 cup of course semolina flour
* a handful of pepitos (pumpkin seeds)
* a handful of sunflower seeds
* 4.5 cups of plain flour
* 1 Tablespoon of salt

h2. Method.

h3. Stage 1.

In a large mixing bowl, place the water and sprinkle the yeast over the top.
Sprinkle the sugar over the yeast and add the millet flour. Whisk until combined and smooth.
Add the wholemeal flour and whisk until smooth.
Cover with a tea-towel and let it sponge for 10 mins.

h3. Stage 2.

Sprinkle the semolina flour and salt over the sponge. Add 1 cup of plain flour and whisk together.
You’ll probably need to change to a wooden spoon now, but keep adding flour until you’ve either managed to combine all the flour or have a slightly sticky dough (well more, just not sticky – you’ll know it because by then you’re likely trying to knead in the remaining flour with your hands and can feel that the dough is the correct consistency).
Form the dough into a ball.

In a large rising bowl (I use a very large stainless steel bowl), place a little olive oil, roll the dough ball through it until all sides have been coated, then cover the bowl with cling-wrap.

Allow the dough to rise for about an hour (until at least doubled in bulk).

Punch down and tip out the dough onto a slightly floured surface. Knead into a bread shape (roughly rectangular if putting in a bread pan). Grease your bread pan (yes I forgot to do so, and praise be to the bread gods that my bread pan has breather wholes in the base).
Place the dough in the bread pan, texture the top (I used three fingers in a fork shape and poked it along it’s length).
Brush with milk and sprinkle with poppy seeds.

Pre-heat your oven to 180/190C.

Loosely cover the dough and allow to proof for 45mins to an hour.
It should look like this:

!/recipes/images/21.jpg (Proofed Dough)! !/recipes/images/22.jpg (Proofed Dough – Top detail)!

Now place it in the oven and bake for 40 mins. If you have a fan forced oven, it pays to rotate the loaf every 15 mins or so, thus avoiding lopsided rising.

!/recipes/images/23.jpg (The finished loaf)!