How to Make Whole Grain Bread

Looking to join the baking trend while spending more time at home? This plant-based, oil-free and salt-free recipe by Rosane Oliveira, founding director of UC Davis Integrative Medicine, is an alternative to store-bought bread.

Ingredients:

• 3 3/4 cups pastry flour, whole wheat
• 1 1/2 cups water, warm
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons rolled oats
• 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds, raw or dry roasted
• 1 tablespoon flaxseed
• 2 1/4 teaspoons yeast, fast-acting

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except rolled oats and sunflower seeds and stir until incorporated (dough will be sticky). When too thick to stir, begin kneading by hand, adding additional flour until the dough no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl.
2. Transfer dough into second bowl. Cover and let rise for two hours at room temperature then two hours in the refrigerator.
3. Remove dough from refrigerator. Make a hole in the center and add sunflower seeds and oats. Sprinkle flour on the surface and knead until dough becomes elastic and seeds and oats have been incorporated.
4. Form into a loaf and place in a parchment-lined loaf pan. Cover loosely and let the dough rise for one hour.
5. Preheat oven to 425ÅãF and place a metal pan on the lowest oven rack.
6. Cut two or three 1/2-inch deep slashes into the top of the bread.
7. Place bread on upper oven rack, then quickly add 1 cup of hot water to the metal pan underneath; close oven door.
8. Bake 25 to 35 minutes, or until the dough has risen and is golden brown.
9. Remove from oven and cool five minutes in the pan before transferring to a cooling rack. Cool completely before slicing.