SPELT BROWN BREAD

Juno mixing the dry ingredients

I was dying for some seeded brown bread yesterday but as it was Mother's Day I was too busy lolling about eating chocolates. So, today I got around to it. I adapted a recipe from the Natural Fuel blog. I swapped in a beaten egg for some water, for the nutritional value. I also used more seeds as I wanted a fairly crunchy bread.

I toasted fresh slices to have with soup. Ended up having one with jam - yum!

INGREDIENTS

• 320g wholegrain spelt flour
• 80g porridge oats
• 35g mixed seeds (sunflower, pumpkin and sesame)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 300 ml tepid water
• 1 medium free-range egg, beaten

METHOD

• Preheat the oven to 200C
• Grease a 2lb loaf tin with veg oil (use a piece of kitchen roll)
• Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Sieve the baking powder and mix through
• Mix in the water, then the egg, until the dough is evenly wet - it's a fairly heavy dough
• Plop the mixture into the loaf tin, smooth down with a wooden spoon and cut a deep line down the centre
• Sprinkle with sesame seeds
• Bake for 1 hour or so (until the bottom sounds hollow when knocked)
• Cool before slicing

OAT & SESAME BISCUITS

I have a funny little book called Porridge by Margaret Briggs which I am fond of - it's kind of eccentric in tone. Often, before baking, I read through the ingredients to see if I have what I need but when I read the method an extra ingredient magically appears. Today, I decided to make these oat and sesame biscuits, and step 4 said 'Add the beaten egg and stir well'. Huh, Margaret?! You never mentioned egg in the ingredients...

Anyway, I used one egg and crossed my fingers and they turned out lovely. If I am making them again, though, I would use less sugar as they are rather sweet.

Oat and Sesame Biscuits

INGREDIENTS

150g porridge oats
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
75g brown sugar (or 50g for a less sweet taste)
125ml vegetable oil (I used rapeseed oil)
1 egg, beaten

METHOD

1) Preheat the oven to 170C & grease two baking trays.
2) Roast the sesame seeds in a dry pan until golden.
3) Put the porridge oats, sesame seeds, sugar and oil in a bowl. Mix together and leave for one hour.
4) Add the beaten egg and mix well.
5) Put small spoonfuls of the mixture onto the greased baking trays.
6) Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.
7) Leave to cool a little before moving to a cooling rack.

My mix made 17 biscuits. 117 kcal per biscuit, 8 g of fat.

VEGAN LEMON & SESAME SEED LOAF

On last night's Desperate Housewives, Bree said baking is 'all about precision'. Not with me Mrs Van de Kamp-Hodge. No, here it's all about cravings and experimentation (the latter not always successful).

Today's experiment is Lemon and Sesame Seed Loaf. Hmm. We had delicious Lemon and Poppy Seed muffins in Paperchase in London at the week-end and I've had lemon cake cravings since Easter, so here we are. Our local veg shop, which also sells seeds, didn't have poppy seeds so instead I bought sesame and just sprinkled them on top. It turned out grand - not very sweet but the lemony-ness makes up for that. Add another 25g to 50 g sugar if you like a sweeter loaf.

Here's the recipe:

150 g of wholemeal spelt flour
100 g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
25 g of light brown sugar
25 g of caster sugar
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp NoEgg mixed with 2tblsps water (or 1 beaten egg for non vegans)
150 mls of soya milk
juice and rind of one large lemon
1 tblsp vegetable oil
a handful of sesame seeds


* Preheat the oven to 160˚C
* Grease a 2lb loaf tin (or line with paper liner)
* Zest the lemon, then squeeze it
* Sieve the flour
* Mix flour, sugar and spice
* Make the NoEgg mix as per pack
* In a jug, mix together the soya milk, oil and NoEgg mixture
* Make a well in the flour and beat in the milky mixture
* Fold in the lemon zest and lemon juice
* Pour the mixture into the loaf tin. Gently shake to flatten the top
* Sprinkle with the sesame seeds
* Bake for an hour in the top of the oven. Move down a shelf if top browning too quickly.
* Test with a skewer to see if it is baked through
* Cool the cake in the tin