‘Life Changing’ Loaf

With my upcoming Infant Massage course confirmed as going ahead I have had baking on the mind. This awesome recipe and reblog is from Jan 2017 …….

It seems only fitting that the woman who helped me bring my daughter into the world and hence changing my life forever would then give me this recipe for ‘Life Changing Bread‘ 10 years later, almost to the day. Thank you to the most amazing Douala in Ireland, you know who you are.:)

This recipe for ‘The Life-Changing Loaf’ is so, so delicious and worked just like the writer said (even the original photo and mine look similar!) that even though I have only made it once I had to share. I did change it …. of course you already knew that I would … only because of my lack of checking that I actually had enough sunflower seeds and because I wanted it nut free.  The thing is that it worked perfectly anyway which just goes to show how great this recipe is.  I did find it interesting that she considers this loaf pretty much gluten free even though it has oats in it as I have always believed that oats do contain gluten.  I did include them in my loaf as oats are something I can tolerate more than other grains however the person I got the recipe from used quinoa flakes instead.  I’ll leave that decision up to you.

Fresh out of the oven

Please check the original blog for the recipe of ‘Life Changing Bread’ and guidelines that they give however below I will put the recipe which I used and the modifications I made.  In the original recipe they use a silicone loaf tray however as I don’t have one of those I simply lined my regular loaf tin with baking paper.  In doing this I was able to lift the paper to check if the loaf was staying together before baking.  The down side of this was that I did have to mix the ingredients in separate containers first before pushing down into the tin.

Delicious as toast also

1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
½ cup whole linseeds
3/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1 ½ cups rolled oats (jumbo ones not the ‘quick’ or fine ones)
2 Tbsp Black chia seeds
4 Tbsp. psyllium seed husks
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt (actually I just ground a bit in)
1 Tbsp honey
3 Tbsp melted coconut oil
1 ½ cups water

• Melt coconut oil and honey in a large pot then whisk in water.
• Combine dry ingredients really well and then pour the wet ingredients over.
• Mix everything thoroughly  until everything is completely soaked and dough becomes thick
• Tip into a lined loaf tin.  Press in and smooth down with the back of a spoon.
• Let sit out on the bench for 2 hours. To ensure the dough is ready, it should retain its shape even when you pull the sides of the loaf pan away from it it.
• Preheat oven to 350°F / 175°C.
• Place loaf pan in the oven on the middle rack, and bake for 20 minutes. Remove bread from loaf pan, place it upside down on a baking paper lined tray and bake for another 30-40 minutes.
• Bread is done when it sounds hollow when tapped. Let cool completely before slicing.
•  Store bread in a tightly sealed container for up to five days. Freezes well too – slice before freezing for quick and easy toast!

So there it is!! Experiment, play, bake and enjoy lots of nourishing goodness.  One thing is for certain … I will be making this again and again.

Arohanui

Y

Easy Gluten Free Bread

I have tried a variety of recipes for Gluten Free Bread it has to be said …. all with varying degrees of disaster!  I am a lazy cook by nature.  It needs to be fairly basic with not much brain power required.  It needs to be quick and easy.  I need to have the ingredients in the cupboard or readily available at the local shops.  Yes … I’m sure the sour dough, gluten free bread is delicious and very edible however I am almost guaranteed to forget about feeding the starter and it is way too much thought needed by me in advance of actually getting to eat.

Fresh out of the oven!

Then low and behold a miracle occurred!!  Yes … I’m fairly easy to ‘wow’ when it comes to food.  While down at my local organic shop the other week I noticed a recipe sheet for Gluten Free Bread that seemed to tick most of my boxes.  Mix, cook and eat all on the same day. 🙂  Turns out it is also a pretty good loaf of GF bread too!

Thought I would share it here for you all to try and let me know your thoughts.  It lasts for a few days pretty well if stored in an air tight container.  I even tried freezing a few slices to toast at an even later date with success and without it all falling apart on me.  Sorry to the original recipe writer as the shop didn’t source it and then I have done my usual adaptations.

Gluten Free Bread

Makes 1 loaf

• 1 Tbsp Dried Yeast
• 1 Tbsp Honey
• 2 Cups Warm Water
• 1 Cup White Rice Flour
• 1 Cup Buckwheat Flour
• 1 Cup Chickpea Flour
• 1/2 Cup Tapioca Flour
• 8 tsp chia seeds
• 8 tsp boiling water
• Sprinkle of Salt
• 1/2 Cup Olive Oil

– In a large bowl whisk the water, yeast and honey and leave for 10 minutes to activate.

– Add all dry ingredients apart from chia seeds and mix well

– Mix chia seeds and boiling water then add to bread mixture with the oil.

– Mix well and pour into a lined bread tin.

– Leave to rise for 10-15 mins.  It doesn’t rise much on baking so if you want a bigger loaf then leave it to rise longer before cooking.

– Bake at 170 C for 45 minutes.

-Enjoy!!

Hope this finds you happy, healthy and enjoying some warm bread. 🙂

Arohanui

Y

www.becominghealthy.co.nz

Palm Oil Free Bread

A few years ago the kids and I got to reading about orangutans and the way that their habitats are being destroyed as the rainforests are cut down for wood and the land is cleared to grow palm oil, an ingredient in lots of foods. These actions, combined with baby orangutans being taken for pets, means that these animals are currently endangered and have a real chance of extinction if humans do not change our behaviours.

My Basic Bread…. no palm oil in sight and only 3 ingredients.

After watching  a few mini documentaries about this the kids decided that if we stopped buying foods with Palm Oil in them it would help the orangutans by lowing the demand – even if ever so slightly.  So the label reading began at each supermarket shop and we avoided buying anything with Palm Oil or unidentified vegetable oil in it very successfully. The children were happy to go without things they had before if it had palm oil in it and would actually ask about the ingredients more often than not. With the information we had, we were doing a pretty good job……. then, as often happens, new information came to hand in the form of Auckland Zoo’s Palm Oil free shopping list (NZ shopping).

With this handy document we have now realised that Palm oil is often hidden (aside from the unidentified vegetable oil) within many foods through the use of scientific names and numbers.  Our shopping today didn’t change that much thankfully due to our preference for packaged food with minimal ingredient lists which I can also understand however the big one for us was our  bagel treat.  It seems that the bagels and pizza bases we normally get, both GF and regular, aren’t Palm Oil free for sure and so while I await an email reply from the manufacturers about the source of their additives we decided to try alternatives that were on the Palm Oil free shopping list.

The choices however weren’t exactly huge or ideal either for different reasons.  Looks like I may be practising a new skill soon 🙂  So I thought this may be a good time to offer my basic bread recipe again so that if any of you wanted to make a change in your eating behaviours and at the same time create change in the world you had an easy, cheap and yummy alternative to bread at least.  This recipe is for one loaf and only has 4 ingredients – water, yeast, flour and a little bit (honestly I’m not one for lots of kneading and hard work) of  manual labour.  You can find it here on my recipe page.

Until next time… I hope this finds you happy, healthy and living the life you dream of.

Arohanui

Y

www.becominghealthy.co.nz

 

A couple of recipes

 

After a weekend away with the family and not getting back to tea time this evening due to road closures I thought I would do a quick and easy post on here with a couple of easy recipes.  I have modified these as we have been sugar free – remember that I still use fresh fruit though 🙂 – and in our attempts to limit the additives in our lives.  The first one is the Ugly Muffins recipe which I posted on my recipe page.  I have changed this one to a GF version which even himself eats so all good there 🙂  The second is the bread recipe I use to make our loaves every couple of days for those who aren’t GF in the house.  I am an extremely lazy cook it has to be said, again, so these recipes really are easy to fit into your daily lives.  Enjoy.

Ugly Muffins – The GF version 🙂

You need:

4 ripe bananas ( I usually use our frozen ones which have quite a bit of liquid with them)

1 finely diced apple with the skin left on

2 Tb olive oil

2 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1/4 cup cornflour

1/4 cup ground almonds

1 egg

1/2 tsp mixed spice

1/2 tsp baking power (I make my own 2 parts cream of tartar, 1 part baking soda, 1 part arrowroot)

1/2 tsp baking soda

– mix everything together till well blended.

– grease muffin tins (we used the mini muffin kind) and put mixture into each ‘muffin’ space

– bake at 180 C for around 15 mins or until cooked.

Basic Bread – makes one loaf

You need:

2 cups tap hot water

2 cups white flour

2 cups wholemeal flour

1/2 tsp dried yeast

– Put water into a large jug or bowl and add the yeast without stirring. Leave until it is ‘bubbly'(usually just a few minutes)

– mix yeast and water then add flour in.

– mix initially and then give a quick knead on a floured bench until all the dough is cohesive.  You may need to add more flour if the dough is sticky (this can depend on the type of flour used)

– put dough back into the bowl and cover.  Leave to rise for 2 hours

– Give the dough another quick knead on a floured bench and shape into a loaf.

– Put loaf shaped dough into your floured loaf tin.  Cut into the dough along the top – 1 x length-wise and 5 x width-wise

– Bake at 200 C  for 40 mins (from a cold oven) or until golden.  Turn out to cool on a rack and cover.  The base should sound hollow when you tap it.

Arohanui

Y

http://www.becominghealthy.co.nz