Wheat-rye bread with dried plums and cranberries.
A rainy evening. Tea with lemon and honey. A warm blanket and socks.
When I recently told my husband that I actually like winter because I love its cozy atmosphere, he looked at me like I had fallen from the top of the tallest Christmas tree next to our building. He tapped his forehead and said that he didn't see anything to like about this time of year. He'd rather bask in the summer sun.
And me? Well. I, my dears, love this kind of rainy weather. Although I don't necessarily enjoy running around the city with an umbrella in my hand, this kind of rainy atmosphere has a great effect on my creative inspiration - which is the result of today's post. I work perfectly in this kind of weather - at my desk and in the kitchen. Thanks to this winter weather, I have recently created a few recipes that (I hope soon) will see the light of day here.
Today's main character is bread. And not just any bread. I love bread with a sweet note in the form of dried fruit or nuts. That's why I've been experimenting with homemade bread lately.
What made me want to bake homemade bread?
They say that in order to be better at something, you have to constantly raise the bar. And that's exactly what I'm doing. I've been wanting to bake GOOD homemade bread for a long time. So far, I'm doing well with yeast and dry sourdough. However, I still dream of baking with real sourdough. And let that be my next culinary bar to overcome.
In the meantime, I invite you to try some really delicious bread with dried plums, cranberries and honey. The recipe is from this site ( click ).
Cake tin measuring 28 cm
Ingredients:
- 400 g wheat bread flour (type 720)
- 200 g wholemeal rye flour (type 2000)
- 400 ml slightly warm water
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 packet of dry yeast
- 1 packet of rye sourdough (dr. Oetker)
- 1.5 teaspoons of salt
- 50 g dried plums
- 50 g dried cranberries
- sunflower seeds (optional - for sprinkling)
Pour wheat and rye flour into a large bowl. Add dried yeast, sourdough and salt and mix. Dissolve honey and oil in warm water. Add water to flour and knead for about 5 minutes until smooth dough (I did this using the hook of a food processor). Cover with a cloth and set aside in a warm place for an hour to rise. Then "degas" the dough by punching it. Add sliced plums and cranberries to the dough and knead everything together. Grease a loaf pan with oil and sprinkle with rye flour or bran. Put the dough in it and spread it evenly with your hands moistened in water. Sprinkle the top with sunflower seeds (optional). Then leave the dough to rise again for 1.5 hours. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees. When the bread has risen, put it in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. After this time, reduce the temperature to 190 and bake for another 30 minutes. Remove the baked bread from the pan while it is still warm and let it cool on a rack.
*When you put the bread into the oven, put any baking tin with boiling water on the bottom (the author of the original did this - thanks to this, the bread will have a crispy crust. I admit that I simply forgot about it: )
