Bread Day? Every Day
We love bread. While some people might find it boring, and others might find it unhealthy (boooo), we are bread’s number one fans. It’s an underrated baked good, especially when it comes to how versatile it actually is. It can be sweet, savory, or both. It can be very crusty and artisan-looking, seeded (like this grovbrød), or super soft and buttery. You can mold it into lots of different shapes, use a variety of baking methods, and each time, you’ll get something different and delicious. We love to mix it up when it comes to fillings – from chocolate to fruit to olives to nuts. And we especially love freshly baked bread topped with plenty of butter, which is undoubtedly the best way to eat it. What about you? What’s your favorite type of bread? Let us know in the comments.
Today’s Recipe: Grovbrød
After my ode to bread (see above), I bet you won’t be surprised to hear that today, we have a new bread recipe for you! This is based on one of our classic roll recipes called grovboller. Packed with plenty of seeds, oats, and fiber, these are ideal if you want to whip up a batch of breakfast rolls for the week. The recipe has also been popular on the blog and has several great reviews, which we are super grateful for! For today’s recipe, we wanted to make a loaf version too, in case you’re someone who prefers sandwich-shaped bread instead of rolls. If you’ve been on the hunt for a nutritious, filling and easy-to-make loaf, look no further – this is the one for you!
Delicious and Nutritious
This is a loaf of bread for the seed-lovers out there, as it’s definitely jam-packed with both sunflower seeds and flax seeds. It also contains oats, which add great texture and flavor, as well as whole wheat and rye flour. Personally, we like bread that doesn’t just use white wheat flour, as both whole wheat and rye flour have a little more of a unique flavor to them. When you combine them with the seeds in this loaf, it’s honestly such a delicious combination of flavors. And that’s not even mentioning the great benefits of more fiber and protein than white bread. Obviously, white bread is just as tasty, so we bake and eat that all the time too, but this is a great alternative if you are a fan of seeded, whole wheat bread.
A Bread for Any Occasion!
As I mentioned before, bread is very versatile, and doesn’t get enough love for being able to be used in so many different ways! This grovbrød, for example, is first and foremost great for sandwiches and toast. But switch it up and use it for French toast, homemade garlic bread, croutons for a salad, and if you make it in roll form (recipe here), you can even use it as a burger bun! Plus, the great thing about making your own bread at home is that you can adjust the ingredients based on what you are going to use the bread for. At the end of the day, homemade bread just changes the game, and you’ll never feel the same about buying it from the store!
Ingredients for Grovbrød
This grovbrød recipe starts out with standard bread ingredients: milk, water, yeast, sugar, salt, and bread flour (you can use all-purpose/plain flour instead). Then, we add the ingredients that give it a wonderful denser texture than white bread and lots of beautiful flavor: whole wheat flour, rye flour, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, and oats. There’s a bit of oil in it to give it a bit of softness, and then an egg for an egg wash that will give you a beautiful golden color. In terms of substitutions, you can definitely adjust a lot of things in this recipe. Use spelt flour instead of rye, or add pumpkins seeds or poppy seeds if that’s what you have. Finally, don’t feel like you have to use vegetable oil, you can easily substitute it for any other oil or melted butter!
Instructions
Add warm water to your yeast first to bloom it – if using instant yeast, you may be able to just add it to your dry ingredients, but check the instructions on your yeast packet – and then add the rest of the ingredients. Knead, either by hand or in a stand mixer, for about 8-10 minutes until the dough is smooth. It won’t get as smooth or elastic as other doughs because it’s very dense. Cover and leave to rise in a warm place. Then, it’s time to shape and let rise in your loaf tin for another 30-45 minutes. Egg wash and add some seeds on top – then it’s time to bake! Once the grovbrød is golden brown and sounds hollow when you tap it, let it fully cool before slices. Although, it’s definitely fair to cut off an end piece to eat warm with some butter 😉 Enjoy!
Grovbrød (Whole Grain Bread Loaf)
Ingredients
- 2 tsp instant yeast (2.25 active dry yeast, 17.5g fresh yeast)
- 200 ml milk
- 100 ml water
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 200 grams whole wheat flour
- 100 grams bread flour or all-purpose flour
- 50 grams rye flour (can be replaced with any other flour you have)
- 85 grams sunflower seeds
- 40 grams flax seeds
- 50 grams oats, blitzed quickly in the food processor
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 egg for egg wash
- Extra seeds/oats for sprinkling on top
Instructions
- Combine milk and water and heat up in the microwave or a saucepan until warm (not hot – you don’t want to kill the yeast!). Add the heated milk and water along with the yeast and sugar to a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer) and stir to dissolve. Let this sit for 5-10 minutes until it bubbles up – this tells you that your yeast is alive and well!
- Measure out your oats and blitz in a food processor until broken down, about 30 seconds.
- Add the vegetable oil to the yeast and milk/water mixture.
- Then, add in the dry ingredients – salt, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, blitzed oats, whole wheat flour, rye flour, and all purpose flour – to the same bowl. You can also pre mix this separately and then add together – if kneading by hand, this will make it easier!
- Begin to knead the dough, either by hand or using the dough hook attachment. If it's particularly sticky, you can add more all purpose flour, as much as you need for it to stop sticking to your hands, or stop sticking to the sides of the bowl of the stand mixer.
- Once the dough starts to come together, knead for about 10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth. The dough is definitely dense, so it may not be as elastic as other types of bread dough!
- Cover with a clean dishtowel or cling film and set aside to rise either overnight in the fridge or for 1 hour at room temperature/until doubled in size or the dough passes the poke test (when dough is poked, it leaves a slight indentation instead of springing back immediately).
- Prepare a loaf pan with a little bit of oil along the sides and a piece of parchment paper hanging across the long edge (for easy removal!)
- Once your dough has doubled in size, turn out onto a work surface and shape into a loaf. Begin by pressing the dough into a rough rectangle, the width of your loaf pan.
- Roll up the dough tightly, then pinch the seam together.
- Place the loaf seam side down, and gently roll the loaf in a circular motion on the unfloured work surface to help close it up even more.
- Place the loaf seam side down in a loaf tin.
- Cover and let rise again for 30-45 minutes (or longer, if your house is colder!), or until the dough passes the poke test again. In the meantime, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Once the dough has risen for a second time, egg wash the bread and top with a sprinkle of sunflower seeds, oats, flax seeds, a combination of all, or whatever other seeds you want!
- We like to score the loaf on top – we make four diagonal cuts across the top of the loaf.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes – or until baked through; check for doneness by tapping the bread and it should sound somewhat hollow (this bread is dense, so it may not sound as airy as other breads!) The color should also be golden along the top. Let cool, slice, and enjoy!
