Adventure Bread

From Josey Baker Bread by Josey Baker (Reprinted with permission from Chronicle Books)

The recipe printed here is in Josey’s words. It’s a gluten-free loaf, and as Josey saysin his introduction to it, “I had been mostly turned off by gluten-free breads,since it seemed like they were all trying to imitate wheat breads, and failingmiserably. But this bread stands on its own…” And he’s right; it’s great. Headapted the recipe from The Life-Changing Loaf of Bread by My New Roots.

To make it, you’ll need to find a loaf pan that is a bit smaller than the usual size. Butany similar-sized vessel, such as shallow ovenproof baking or gratin dish should work just fine. The almonds should be coarsely chopped to give the breadsome additional texture. But you can swap out any sort of nuts. And if makingthe bread for people who are gluten intolerant, make sure to use oats that arecertified gluten-free. The vessel Josey recommends is 9 or 8-inch by 4-inch loaf pan (20cm by 10cm), oiled

Course Bread

Keyword bread, gluten-free

Servings servings

Dry ingredients

2 1/4 cups (235g) old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup (160g) sunflower seeds, hulled
1/2 cup (65g) pumpkin seeds, hulled
3/4 cup (90g) almonds, toasted and coarsely chopped
3/4 cup (120g) flax seeds
1/3 cup (20g) psyllium seed husks, (see note)
3 tablespoons (25g) chia seeds
2 teaspoons (12g) fine sea salt

The wet stuff

2 tablespoons (40g) maple syrup
1/4 cup (55g) olive oil
2 1/2 cups (600g) water

Gather your foodstuffs. Toast the seeds. Preheat your oven to 350ºF (180ºC.) Spread the sunflower and pumpkin seeds on a baking sheet and toast until they start to brown, about 15 minutes, stirring halfway during baking.
(David: The seeds may take less time to toast, so keep an eye on them.)
Measure ingredients. Dump this stuff (all the dry ingredients) into big bowl. Then pour in the wet stuff.
Mix it all up. Oil your loaf pan, and then mush up your “dough” real good with your strong hands or a big spoon. Take pride in your mush-job; this is all of the handling you’re doing to do with this “dough.” Once it’s mixed real good, scoop it into your oiled pan and smooth out the top so it looks nice. Then stick it in the fridge and leave it alone for at least a few hours, up to a whole day.
Bake it. Put a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 400ºF (200ºC.) Remove the bread from the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature. Bake the bread for about an hour or so, then take it out and gently remove the loaf from the pan. Let cool on a cooling rack for at least 2 hours (YES, two whole hours). Don’t rush it here folks, this bread is D*E*N*S*E, and if you don’t wait for it to cool, it really won’t be as yummy.
Toast and eat. This bread is definitely best sliced nice and thin (around 1/2-inch, 12mm) and then toasted up and spread with whatever your heart desires. And don’t worry if you’re adventuring somewhere without toaster access (like a gorgeous river in the middle of nowhere), it will still be scrumptious, I promise.