Is flaxseed the new miracle food? That’s a big claim to live up to, yet this tiny little seed provides 3 incredible benefits for your diet. Dr. Oz highly recommends a daily dose of flaxseed as a great source of fiber, omega-3 and lignans which reduce the risk of breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men. And if all that isn’t enough to get you on the flaxseed wagon, flaxseed has been known to reduce hot flashes. Go flaxseed!
I’ll take any opportunity to get some flaxseed into a meal. I’ll sprinkle it into fruit smoothies, oatmeal, yogurt, and bread is a great way to get lots of flaxseed into your diet.
I prefer golden flaxseed as it has a much lighter flavor. Don’t buy pre-ground flaxseed. Grind it yourself in a coffee grinder or a blender. Flaxseed starts to degenerate as soon as its exposed to heat and air so a bag of pre-ground flaxseed sitting on a shelf in a grocery store is not an option for me. Besides it’s super easy to grind it yourself.
This recipe makes one loaf. You can of course double the recipe if you’ll be serving a lot of bread this week, or set aside one loaf after the first rise, wrap it in plastic and freeze it. Then when you’re ready to bake it up, thaw it at room temperature or in the fridge, do the second rising in the loaf pan and bake it up. So much easier than making the entire recipe twice.
Ingredients:
1/3 cup flaxseed
1-3/4 cups lukewarm water
1 tablespoon honey
2 1/4 cups whole grain flour, whole wheat, white whole wheat, pumpemickel, or rye
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 package (2-1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
Instructions:
In food processor grind flaxseed into a coarse meal. Set aside.
In a large bowl, stir water and honey until honey is dissolved, or pulse in food processor. Sprinkle in yeast; let stand until yeast bubbles, about 5 minutes.
Add 1 cup flour, salt and ground flaxseed. With a wooden spoon, stir vigorously in the same direction until batter is smooth or pulse in a food processor. Alternatively, mix dough in a stand-up mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
Gradually stir in 1 cup flour until mixture becomes too difficult to stir comfortably. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, adding only enough of the remaining bread flour to keep it from sticking, until dough is smooth and elastic, 10 to 12 minutes. The dough will be slightly sticky.
Lightly oil a large bowl. To save on dishes if I’ve mixed this in a bowl rather than a food processor I use a spatula to scrape out as much of the dough as I can into an oiled loaf pan, then oil the bowl. Place dough back into the bowl, turning to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap or a towel and let rise in a warm place such as the top of a television set or the refrigerator on in the sun until doubled, about 1-1/2 hours.
Lightly oil a loaf pan. Punch dough down. Flatten into a disk and tightly roll the dough into a log. Place seam-side down in loaf pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until dough comes over the top of the pan, about 45 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Bake bread for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for 20 to 25 minutes, or until bread is pulling away from the sides of the pan. Turn bread out onto a wire rack and cool completely before slicing. Although I have to admit I can never resist cutting off the ends to eat as soon as the loaf is cool enough to handle.