Power Bread (#1446) posted by Stephanie-OH is very good!

[marilynfl]

I conned the husband into making it yesterday while I slaved away on taxes.

("We owe, we owe, so Marilyn's really slow...with filing this and paying that, we owe, oh no, no, no, no" (sung to the Heigh-Ho song from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"))

I must start out by saying that the result from the overnight raisin/flaxseed soak looked like alien spawn, but we moved forward anyway.

The only changes to the original recipe were:

*oat bran instead of wheat because that's what I had in the frig.

*regular flour mixed with pure gluten instead of unbleached bread flour because I stopped at Whole Foods without the recipe and picked up 5 pounds of whole wheat bread AND 5 pounds of white whole wheat bread...but the recipe used neither. (What was I thinking...relying on MY memory.) And I wasn't about to buy 5 more pounds of anything.

Lar added 5 tsp of gluten to the 24 oz of flour (1 tsp gluten per 1 cup flour).

Used 3/4 Cup water to get to slaggy stage and the Kitchen Aid for 4 minutes of kneading, then finished the rest by hand. Had to add about 2/3 C more flour before it stopped sticking.

After the first rise, Lar divided the dough and added extras to 1/2 of it.

1/2 C chopped walnuts

1/4 C dried cherries

1/4 C dried tart cranberries

1/4 C dried sweet cranberries.

This half was shaped into a large loaf. The rest of the dough was cut into rectangles and baked.

All turned out very good, but the half with the fruit is our favorite for toasting. I think the regular buns will make great ham sandwiches. There is a gentle whiff of peanut butter-ish aroma from the ground sunflower seeds that is delightful.

By the way, the flax seed never ground up at all...is it supposed to?

PS: My apologies to anyone still humming the Heigh -Ho song.

 

[judy-mass]

I usually add an assortment of dried fruits to the dough

since I can't resist buying all of the wonderful varieties of berries that TJs sells.
As for the flax seeds, probably half of mine get chopped up by the FP. I suppose you could chop some of them beofre soaking, but if you thought it looked like an alien swamp mess with whole seeds, you don't want to see it with broken seeds. smileys/smile.gif
BTW, the bread with cranberries makes fantastic turkey sammies.

 

[marilynfl]

We're on the same track, Judy...I'm thinking honey mustard with turkey....

Do you do all the kneading by hand...and do you usually have to add more flour? I was wondering if there was a slight difference because we didn't use true unbleached bread flour.

This one's a definite keeper. I'm going to add date bits next.

 

[judy-mass]

I let my KA mixer do most do the kneading.....

and whether or not it needs more flour added depends more on how dry or damp the air has been than on what kind of flour I use.
I don't buy bread flour, but just add 1 teaspoon of gluten to the mix for each cup of flour, as you did.
I've also gotten used to working with sticky doughs, so am less likely to add a lot more flour. I think the end result is better if you can refrain from using excess flour.
Date bits sound like a fun addition. Let me know how it turns out.