This bread was life changing. No really, if you think I'm being dramatic try giving up wheat, corn, soy, and rice for awhile and then come talk to me. For the longest time I dreamed of bread; soft rolls slathered in butter, cheesy biscuits, croissants, chewy pizza dough, even thin tortillas. I grew so sick of salad I didn't want to even look at vegetables.
When I discovered this recipe over at Wholehearted Eats some time ago I nearly cried with joy, because it was something that I could actually eat. Also, it's super easy to make and while it's not soft and luscious like bread, it's closer than anything else I've eaten.
The bread toasts up decently well, and I have used it for my morning toast. When I don't feel like cooking, I've topped it with various things for a light lunch or dinner, and that works well too. I'll capture all the things I put on my toast in another post, to give you some ideas.
This recipe is adapted with little change from the source, because to be quite honest I'm not sure I'd know how to come up with this on my own. Do go check out the site because she has some really great stuff over there, as well as another version of this bread made with quinoa and millet. For the loaf in the photo, I actually didn't have quite enough buckwheat so I used 1 1/4 cup buckwheat and then 1/2 cup of quinoa that I had soaked for 8 hours. It worked beautifully!
Free of: dairy, corn, rice, wheat, soy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts
(the degree of FREE depends on the ingredients/brands used, manufacturer lines, etc. Always read labels)
Makes one loaf
Ingredients:
- 1 3/4 cups hulled buckwheat groats
- 2 tbsp psyllium fiber (found at the health food store)
- 2 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 cup water
- 3 Tbsp oil
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- various seeds for the top, if you wish
Directions:
1. Measure your buckwheat groats into a container and fill it with water so that they are well covered. The first time I did this, I didn't cover them with enough water and the groats soaked it all up. Now just set it on the counter and leave it for at least 2 hours. You want the groats to become soft and squishy, but you don't want to let them sit for longer than 8 hours.
2. When your groats are ready, drain and rinse them. The water might look a little pink but don't worry about it. Dump the rinsed groats into your food processor.
3. Measure out the chia and psyllium fiber into 1 cup of water, give it a stir, and then let it sit for 10 minutes to gel up. It looks a little weird, but trust me, it works.
4. As the psyllium is gelling, turn your oven on to 320 F and measure the oil, honey, baking powder, and salt into the food processor bowl with your groats.
5. Get yourself a loaf pan and first lightly oil it, then line with a bit of parchment paper. This makes it really easy to remove the loaf from the pan.
6. Scrape your gelled psyllium into the food processor. Try not to get all of it in one spot. Put the lid on and start blending it on low. The groats and other stuff will blend up into a sticky batter. I do it until everything seems well mixed together.
7. Scrape the batter into the loaf pan and smooth the top. Sprinkle on whatever seeds you are adding and gently press them into the batter slightly. I change it up often, from poppy and sesame seeds to pumpkin and/or sunflower. Mostly it is whatever I have on hand in my pantry.
8. Bake the loaf for 90 minutes. It will rise a bit, but don't expect it to poof up like regular bread. When it's finished baking take the pan out of the oven and set it on a rack to cool for about 5 minutes before you remove it from the pan and let it cool completely.
9. Slice thinly when the loaf is cooled right through. I pop my loaf into a large freezer bag and put it away for the rest of the week!
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