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Sunflower & Barley Wholemeal Bread

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As a child I grew up with Danish rye breads and I clearly remember my friends around me at school eating white bread sandwiches while I ate my danish rye bread ones 😎 One friend in particular always wanted to swap as mine was always tastier 😄 Having Danish heritage, rye bread is never far from my daily diet especially around breakfast with a perfectly pouched egg on top. The thing with rye breads though is that they are a time consuming to make... They are a real art so if you can find an artisan bakery that makes a beautiful one then stick with it... This is my go to that is reasonably quick, easy and full of flavour! But, it is more of a wholemeal bread than a dark Danish rye.

The trick for me to keeping a good balanced sugar level when it comes to bread is getting it very thinly sliced. This way, even if you're having 2 pieces you're eating less bread than usual, therefore less carbs that can spike my sugar levels. It also means when you toast it, it is nice and crunchy! I invested in a bread cutter which makes slicing my own bread super thin much easier! Otherwise, give it a go using a knife (being careful). Also, by having the barley, sunflower seed and wholemeal ingredient it burns in my belly a bit slower 👍🏼

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Ingredients

• 3 cups wholemeal flour
• 1 cup rye meal flour
• 1/4 cup pearl barley
• 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
• 2 tsp active dry yeast
• 1 tsp stevia
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 1 Tbsp canola oil
• 1 and 3/4 cups warm water
• Extra wholemeal flour to dust when kneading
• Extra dash of oil for greasing the bowl / baking dish
  

How to

Mix the ingredients:

• Put the dry ingredients together in a bowl
• Add the water, vinegar then the oil
• Mix with a fork until it is semi combined
• With the extra wholemeal flour dust your hands
• Using your hands, mix the mixture together

Kneading time!

• Dust a clean dry surface with flour
• Take the mixture out of the bowl and onto the flour
• Knead the mixture for 5 - 7 minutes until the mixture forms a nice ball of dough (it might be quite sticky when you start, just keep adding flour to your hands)

Let it chill (so the yeast activates):

• Once you have finished kneading and formed a nice round ball, dust it with flour and cover it in a warm place for 45 minutes (as you can see in the photos I just covered it with a damp warm tea towel and placed it in a sunny area or a hot water cupboard) Just be sure to place some oil the bowl beforehand so it doesn't stick). 
• After 45 minutes it should have doubled in size. Take it out of the bowl and place the dough on a floured surface.

Make it the shape you're baking it in then more chill:

• Mould the dough into the form you want to bake it in (for example you can see in the pictures I baked mine in a bread-tin-like shape)
• Place the dough into a well oiled baking dish
• Cover it again and put it back in the warm place for another 45 minutes
• While waiting, warm your oven to 200°C bake

Bake it!

• After the 45 minutes, place it in the middle of the oven and bake for  25 - 30 minutes. Be sure to check after 25 minutes... It's ready when you tap the top of the bread and it sounds hollow (even oven is different so keep an eye on it and do the tap test)
• Once you take the bread out, let it sit for 5 minutes
• Remove the bread from the tin gently and let it sit on a wire rack for 20 - 30 minutes until it has cooled a little more

YOU'RE DONE!

• Slice the bread as you need it and enjoy :-)
• Wrap it up in a dry, clean tea towel or a brown paper bag and store it in a dry and cool place.

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