My Daily Bread

Two weeks back, I tweaked my usual bread recipe and came up with this one. I like it so much that I have been making it each time we run out of bread. This is not fancy baking. We make this every 3-4 days at our house. Here is the recipe:

• 
  
  1.5 cups of water
• 
  
  2 cups of bread flour
• 
  
  1.5 cups of wholewheat flour
• 
  
  2 tbsp black strap molasses (BSM)*
• 
  
  1 tsp salt
• 
  
  2 tbsp oil
• 
  
  2 tsp instant yeast
• 
  
  1 tsp flaxseed
• 
  
  anything else you may fancy e.g. raisins, sunflower seeds

I put the lot of ingredients into the breadmaker and run a 'dough' cycle. Then transfer it to an oiled bread tin and let it rise for 60 minutes. Punch down. Let it rise for 40 - 60 minutes. Bake at 180C with a bowl of hot water. I have found that having a bowl of water in the oven makes a moist loaf.

The tweak*

I found a bottle of organic BSM left over from a liver detox which we did a few years back. It smelled & tasted ok, so I decided to use it in place of sugar in my bread. The aroma is heavenly and it imparts flavour without adding sweetness. Perfect for the kids who prefer sweet breads but minus the sugar. If I remember rightly, BSM is a good source of iron.

This is my daily bread. The beauty of the recipe lies in the simplicity. It is versatile, you can add anything you like. For weeks, we had raisin and cinnamon, then apricot, almonds. Today, its BSM and sunflower seeds.
I am going to have a slice for supper.