I first saw this fancy seeded bread on my instagram feed, immediately Googled it, found it, read this wonderful woman’s whole post about it, made it, and thoroughly savored it. She’s named this bread ‘The Life-Changing Loaf of Bread.’
Mind you, as tasty and nutritionally packed as this bread is, I would never turn a fresh, hot out of the oven loaf of Greek, Italian, Spanish, French, etc, etc….bread covered in butter away, ever. For me, this is simply another wonderful addition to the bread line-up.
There is so much information that goes along with this recipe from the ingredients, the nutritional values, substitutions, etc…that instead of trying to rewrite an entire post that covers all this beautifully, I highly suggest taking the time to read Sarah’s post all the way through.
For those of you who were wondering what was holding this bread together….the answer is…psyllium seed husks.
A couple of things from my first try with this bread:
- First, you will need a silicon bread pan. No one in town had one, so Amazon it was. Just in case you can’t find one close to you either, here is the one I got.
- I let my mixture sit overnight.
- When I baked it for the first step and took it out of the loaf pan, one side crumbled a little bit. It’s really fragile. When you turn it out, be really gentle with it.
- I did not put the loaf directly on my rack in my oven, but instead placed in on a cooling rack and placed the cooling rack in my oven with a sheet pan under it. I was a little afraid more
may have crumbled out and I didn’t want any burnt little bits on my oven floor. None did. - Don’t be tempted to cut into it until it has cooled. Use a bread knife.
It was already a bit on the ‘toasted’ side when finished, but we did toast a few slices and I agree with Sarah, it makes the best toast, ever. I served it smeared with sweet orange marmalade and used it crumbled over a creamy cauliflower soup, but I can see this as a base for all kinds of sweet and savory toppings.
So, get your pan, gather your ingredients, make this most amazing “Life Changing Bread” and share it with everyone you know.
- 1 cup / 135g sunflower seeds
- ½ cup / 90g flax seeds
- ½ cup / 65g hazelnuts or almonds
- 1 ½ cups / 145g rolled oats
- 2 Tbsp. chia seeds
- 4 Tbsp. psyllium seed husks (3 Tbsp. if using psyllium husk powder)
- 1 tsp. fine grain sea salt (add ½ tsp. if using coarse salt)
- 1 Tbsp. maple syrup (for sugar-free diets, use a pinch of stevia)
- 3 Tbsp. melted coconut oil or ghee
- 1 ½ cups / 350ml water
- In a flexible, silicon loaf pan combine all dry ingredients, stirring well. Whisk maple syrup, oil and water together in a measuring cup. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix very well until everything is completely soaked and dough becomes very thick (if the dough is too thick to stir, add one or two teaspoons of water until the dough is manageable). Smooth out the top with the back of a spoon. Let sit out on the counter for at least 2 hours, or all day or overnight. To ensure the dough is ready, it should retain its shape even when you pull the sides of the loaf pan away from it it.
- Preheat oven to 350°F / 175°C.
- Place loaf pan in the oven on the middle rack, and bake for 20 minutes. Remove bread from loaf pan, place it upside down directly on the rack and bake for another 30-40 minutes. Bread is done when it sounds hollow when tapped. Let cool completely before slicing (difficult, but important).
- Store bread in a tightly sealed container for up to five days. Freezes well too – slice before freezing for quick and easy toast!
