My recent cheesy white sub recipe turned out super delicious, and that crispy cheesy crust was something extra special. But I need to step back sometimes and make equally as delicious healthy counterparts of those types of recipes. So, here we have seeded 50/50 white and whole wheat subs. They’re soft and bouncy and full of complex flavours.

You can customize this recipe to your taste. Swap the seeds for other ones or leave them out altogether. Change the ratio of flours if you want more whole-wheat (at the cost of softness). Shape the dough into buns instead of subs if you want to use them for some hearty burgers.

I went with cold bulk fermentation because it is the most convenient method for my schedule. If you want to make them on the same day, then do the bulk fermentation at room temperature for 1.5 hours giving the dough a fold halfway through. Continue as per recipe after that.

This recipe makes 3 large subs or 4 burger buns.

Watch the video down below for detailed instructions.

Ingredients

For the scald –

50g (1.75oz) whole wheat bread flour

20g (0.7oz) butter

15g (0.5oz) barley malt syrup or any other sweetener

6g (0.21oz) salt

30g (1oz) seeds

240g (8.5oz) boiling water

For the dough –

3g (0.1oz) instant dry yeast or 3.6g (0.13oz) active dry yeast or 9g (0.32oz) fresh yeast

1 egg yolk

100g (3.5oz) whole wheat bread flour

150g (5.3oz) white bread flour

For topping –

1 egg white

30g (1oz) seeds

My seed mix –

15g (0.5oz) black sesame seed

15g (0.5oz) white sesame seed

10g (0.35oz) poppy seed

5g (0.17oz) caraway seed

5g (0.17oz) dill seed

5g (0.17oz) fennel seed

5g (0.17oz) coriander seed

To learn more about no-knead bread dough temperature control click here.

The flour I use has a protein content of 13%. If your flour is weaker, then you may need to lower the hydration. 

If you are using active dry yeast, then you may need to let it sit in the scald for 10 minutes before adding the other ingredients or else it could take a lot longer to raise the dough.

If you are curious about why the dough contains butter, egg, and sugar, click the links to learn more about the effects those ingredients have on bread dough.

Method

1. Toast 30g (1oz) of the seeds for 2 minutes on high heat in a dry pan. They will be mixed into the dough. You can leave them untoasted if you like. Grinding them is also optional.
2. Make the scald. Combine the flour, butter, syrup, salt, and seeds in a large bowl. Pour in the boiling water and mix until smooth. Cover and leave to cool down.
3. Make the dough. Add the yeast, egg yolk, and whole wheat flour to the cooled down scald. Mix well. Add the white flour and mix to a dough. *Desired dough temperature around 23C (73F). If your dough is at this temperature, then chill it right away. If it turns out cooler, like mined did, then leave it at room temperature.
4. Ferment the dough for 30 minutes.
5. Fold.
6. Cold ferment for 18 – 24 hours.
7. Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces and shape into balls.
8. Rest for 30 minutes.
9. Shape, cover and proof for 1.5 hours. At room temperature it may take only 1 hour.
10. Brush the subs with egg white and top with seeds.
11. Bake at 170C (340F) fan on or 190C (375F) fan off for 25 minutes.

Leave to cool down and make yourself a delicious sandwich!

Keep in mind that the conditions in each kitchen are different, so fermentation times may vary for you. It is up to the baker to control the bread and react accordingly.

Your oven may be different too, so your baking time may vary.

As far as I can tell, a slab loaf is just a big flat loaf bread. There is no consistency between many of the recipes that I have come across. So, I decided to create my own flat loaf. It contains a variety of flours and seeds that produce a relatively mild yet complex flavour.

Whenever a recipe contains a considerable amount of seeds, it is advisable to soak those seeds so that they don’t dry out the dough. Dry seeds are also harder to slice through; soaking them turns them soft and easily sliceable. Most seeds can be soaked in cold water.

There is another method for improving dough – scalding. The scalding method involves boiling water. The hot water is mixed with part of the flour which essentially cooks the flour and makes it absorb more water and at the same time weakens the gluten forming ability of it. This results in a bread that is soft and moist and able to stay soft and moist for longer.

Both soaking and scalding can be combined into one, and that is exactly what I did here. The seeds and the flour are both mixed with boiling water to achieve the best results of both methods described above.

You can use any seeds that you like. You can swap the spelt flour for any other flour that you prefer or have available. You can adjust the wheat flour ratio in the main dough too.

This recipe used the cold bulk fermentation method which improves the flavour of the bread and makes the dough easier to handle. You can ferment it at room temperature if you want to. Let it bulk ferment for 1.5 hours and then proceed as per recipe.

Watch the video down below for detailed instructions.

Ingredients

For the scald/soaker –

50g (1.75oz) spelt flour

8g (0.28oz) salt

100g (3.5oz) seeds. I used sunflower, pumpkin, and caraway.

20g (0.7oz) barley malt syrup or any other sweetener

360g (12.7oz) boiling water

For the main dough –

3g (0.1oz) instant dry yeast or 3.6g (0.13oz) active dry yeast or 9g (0.32oz) fresh yeast

150g (5.3oz) whole wheat bread flour

200g (7oz) white bread flour

Wheat bran for coating (optional).

To learn more about no-knead bread dough temperature control click here.

The flour I use has a protein content of 13%. If your flour is weaker, then you may need to lower the hydration. 

If you are using active dry yeast, then you may need to let it sit in the scald for 10 minutes before adding the other ingredients or else it could take a lot longer to raise the dough.

Method

1. Make the scald/soaker. Combine the spelt flour, salt, seeds, syrup, and boiling water in a large bowl. Whisk together. Cover and cool down at room temperature or in the fridge or even in the freezer. Whisk it occasionally to cool it down more evenly and quickly.
2. Make the dough. Add the yeast and the whole wheat flour to the scald. Mix well. Add the white bread flour and mix to a dough.
3. Cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
4. Fold #1.
5. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
6. Fold #2.
7. Cold ferment for 18 – 24 hours.
8. Pre-shape and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
9. Shape and place on a piece of baking paper. Spray with water and cover with wheat bran or seeds.
10. Final proof 1 hour.
11. Score and bake covered at 220C (430F) fan on or 240C (465F) fan off for 25 minutes.
12. Remove the lid and bake for 15 more minutes or until you are happy with the colour of the crust.

Keep in mind that the conditions in each kitchen are different, so fermentation times may vary for you. It is up to the baker to control the bread and react accordingly.

Your oven may be different too, so your baking time may vary.

It’s been a while since I’ve made a bread with a soaker. A soaker is a mix of seeds and/or grains that are soaked in hot or cold liquid in order to make them softer. There are a few good reasons for using soakers in breadmaking. Some grains simply must be soaked otherwise they will be inedible. Some nuts may be too chunky and hard to slice through if not soaked which may result in the bread tearing when cut. Dry seeds and grains will absorb water from the dough drying it out. Soaking them beforehand will prevent all of it. You can find a whole video about soakers right here.

Various ingredients can be added to a soaker. Pretty much any seed that you can eat can be used. And many grains which do not require a lot of cooking. Small seeds can be soaked in cold water while harder grains may do better in a hot water soaker. You can customize this recipe to your taste by using any seeds that you like.

Watch the video down below for detailed instructions.

Ingredients

For the soaker –

20g (0.7oz) millet

30g (1oz) golden raisins

40g (1.4oz) roasted chopped hazelnuts

2g (0.07oz) toasted anise seeds

2g (0.07oz) toasted fennel seeds

2g (0.07oz) toasted caraway seeds

200g (7oz) boiling water

For the dough –

280g (9.9oz) water

3g (0.1oz) instant dry yeast or 3.6g (0.13oz) active dry yeast or 9g (0.32oz) fresh yeast

8g (0.28oz) salt

50g (1.75oz) wholegrain (dark) rye flour

50g (1.75oz) wholewheat bread flour

300g (10.6oz) white bread flour

To learn more about no-knead bread dough temperature control click here.

The flour I use has a protein content of 13%. If your flour is weaker, then you may need to lower the hydration. 

If you are using active dry yeast, then you may need to let it sit in the water for 10 minutes before adding the other ingredients or else it could take a lot longer to raise the dough.

Method

1.      Make the soaker. Combine the seeds, raisins, hazelnuts, and millet in a small bowl. Pour in the boiling water. Leave to cool down completely and then drain well.

2.      Make the dough. Combine the water, yeast, salt, rye flour, wholewheat flour, and soaker in a large bowl. Mix well to dissolve the salt and yeast. Add the white bread flour and mix to a dough. *Desired dough temperature around 24C (75F).

3.      Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

4.      Fold.

5.      Cold ferment for 18 – 24 hours.

6.      Pre-shape the dough and leave it to rest for 30 minutes.

7.      Shape the loaf and place it in a banneton. Cover and proof for 1 hour.

8.      Score and bake at 220C (430F) fan on or 240C (465F) fan off with the lid on for 30 minutes.

9.      Remove the lid and place the loaf back into the oven for 10 minutes.

Leave to cool down before slicing.

Keep in mind that the conditions in each kitchen are different, so fermentation times may vary for you. It is up to the baker to control the bread and react accordingly.

Your oven may be different too, so your baking time may vary.

It’s been a while since I’ve baked a bread with 100% whole wheat flour, and it being January, I thought it would be a good time to do so. Plain whole wheat bread can be boring, so I decided to add some extra ingredients to make it more interesting and flavourful.

Bread spice is commonly used in rye bread baking in Europe. It is a mix of toasted seeds which are ground to a powder and then added to bread dough for a fragrant flavour boost. Any type of fragrant seed can be used in bread spice, and you can customize it to your taste by using other seeds or by adjusting the ratios.

The recipe contains mashed potato which will make the bread softer, and it will make it stay softer for longer. A little bit of olive oil will extend its life also. The barley malt syrup adds a nice sweetness and works well with whole wheat flour. You can swap it for some other sweet syrup if you want to.

Ingredients

For the bread spice –

6g (0.21oz) anise seed

6g (0.21oz) coriander seed

6g (0.21oz) fennel seed

6g (0.21oz) caraway seed

6g (0.21oz) dill seed

For the dough –

425g (15oz) water

5g (0.17oz) instant dry yeast or 6g (0.21oz) active dry yeast or 15g (0.53oz) fresh yeast

10g (0.35oz) salt

15g (0.53oz) olive oil

25g (0.9oz) barley malt syrup

50g (1.75oz) mashed potato

500g (1.1lb) whole wheat bread flour

Linseeds for coating

To learn more about no-knead bread dough temperature control click here.

The flour I use has a protein content of 13%. If your flour is weaker, then you may need to lower the hydration. 

If you are using active dry yeast, then you may need to let it sit in the water for 10 minutes before adding the other ingredients or else it could take a lot longer to raise the dough.

Method

1. Make the bread spice. Pour all the seeds in a small pan and toast them on high heat for 2 – 3 minutes until fragrant and smoky. Grind to a powder.
2. Make the dough. Dissolve the salt and yeast in the water. Add the olive oil, barley malt syrup, mashed potato, and bread spice. Mix well. Add the flour and mix to a dough. *Desired dough temperature around 23C (73F).
3. Cover and ferment for 15 minutes.
4. Fold #1.
5. Ferment for 15 minutes.
6. Fold #2.
7. Ferment for 15 minutes.
8. Fold #3.
9. Ferment for 15 minutes.
10. Fold #4.
11. Ferment for 15 minutes.
12. Shape the loaf. Spray it with water and then coat it in linseeds.
13. Place the loaf in a non-stick paper lined baking tin.
14. Cover and proof for 45 – 60 minutes.
15. Bake at 190C (375F) fan on or 210C (410F) fan off for 40 minutes.
16. Remove the loaf from the tin and place it back into the oven for 10 more minutes.

Leave to cool down before slicing.

Recently I published a video detailing the use of porridge in breadmaking. It is a great method for changing the texture and flavour and improving the keeping quality of bread. Pretty much any grain, pulse or seed can be used in the preparation of porridge for breadmaking.

I chose millet for this recipe because I like the subtle sweetness of it and its bright yellow colour. You can replace the millet with any other grain without having to adjust anything else in the recipe. If you’re not a fan of fennel seed, then you can leave it out or replace it with some other type of seed.

The cracks in the crust of this loaf are formed in a unique way. Instead of being scored the dough is proofed ‘the wrong way up’ with the seam on the bottom. Then when it’s inverted onto the baking surface the seam that was formed during final shaping ends up on the top of the dough. When baked the seams open up as the dough rises creating a unique design every time.

If you want to score this loaf to give it your own signature proof it with the seam side up.

Watch the video down below for detailed instructions.

Ingredients

For the porridge –

80g (2.8oz) millet

8g (0.28oz) fennel seed

200g (7oz) water

Pinch of salt

For the main dough –

330g (11.7oz) water

3g (0.1oz) instant dry yeast or 3.6g (0.13oz) active dry yeast or 9g (0.32oz) fresh yeast

10g (0.35oz) salt

10g (0.35oz) olive oil

100g (3.5oz) whole wheat flour

25g (0.9oz) wholegrain rye flour

75g (2.65oz) semolina

300g (10.6oz) white bread flour

To learn more about no-knead bread dough temperature control click here.

The flour I use has a protein content of 13%. If your flour is weaker, then you may need to lower the hydration. 

If you are using active dry yeast, then you may need to let it sit in the water for 10 minutes before adding the other ingredients or else it could take a lot longer to raise the dough.

Method

1. Make the porridge. In a small pan combine the millet, fennel seed, pinch of salt, and water. Bring up to a boil, turn the heat down low, cover and simmer for 15 – 17 minutes until the water has been absorbed. Transfer to a bowl and leave to cool down completely.
2. Make the dough. In a large bowl combine the water, yeast, salt, olive oil, whole wheat flour, rye flour, semolina, and the porridge. Mix well. Add the white bread flour and mix to a dough. *Desired dough temperature 24C (75F).
3. Cover and chill for 1 hour.
4. Fold.
5. Cover and cold ferment for 18 – 24 hours.
6. Shape the loaf and place it in a proofing basket. Cover and proof for 2 hours.
7. While the dough is proofing, pre-heat the oven and the baking vessel to 250C (480F) fan on.
8. Invert the dough onto the pre-heated pan. Cover and place it in the oven. Turn the temperature down to 220C (430F) and bake for 30 minutes.
9. Remove the lid and place the loaf back into the oven for another 10 – 15 minutes to finish baking the crust.

Leave to cool down and enjoy your super soft millet bread!

Keep in mind that the conditions in each kitchen are different, so fermentation times may vary for you. It is up to the baker to control the bread and react accordingly.

Your oven may be different too, so your baking time may vary.

Bread and butter are the perfect match. One of my favourite things to eat is a freshly baked bread with a thick layer of butter and a pinch of sea salt. And I’m sure most of you would agree that this simple combination makes one of the tastiest things ever.

I have made hundreds of breads on this channel, and I have even made a few different cheeses. But I had never made butter. As it turns out it is extremely simple to make. All we need is some double cream, optional sea salt, and a mixer, or a jar and a whole lot of elbow grease. While it is possible to make butter manually with a jar, it is rather difficult. Perhaps a smaller amount would be more manageable. With a mixer it takes no effort at all. Even an electric whisk would work.

But why make butter at all? A couple of good reasons – one, it will contain only what you put in it, and secondly it makes it quite a bit cheaper. I paid 20% less for the cream compared to a block of butter and got 20% more butter out of it in the end.

Use the fattiest cream that you can find because it will yield more butter. The one I used was 50% fat. The recipe makes around 300g (10oz) butter. You can use less cream to make a smaller amount. Leave the salt out if you want to make unsalted butter.

Although I used freshly milled flour for the bread recipe you do not need to do that if you don’t have a mill at home. Simply replace the grain in the recipe with equal amounts of flour. Bulgur wheat can be swapped with white bread flour.

You can adjust the seeds, sweetening, and you can make it on the same day instead of cold fermenting. Let the dough double during bulk fermentation and then proceed to shaping and proofing.

Watch the video down below for detailed instructions.

Ingredients

For the butter –

600g (1.3lb) double (heavy) cream

5g (0.17oz) sea salt

For the bread –

400g (14.1oz) wheat grain or whole wheat flour

50g (1.75oz) rye grain or wholegrain (dark) rye flour

50g (1.75oz) bulgur wheat or white bread flour

8g (0.28oz) salt

3g (0.1oz) instant dry yeast or 3.6g (0.13oz) active dry yeast or 9g (0.31oz) fresh yeast

20g (0.7oz) black treacle or molasses

8g (0.28oz) caraway seeds

40g (1.4oz) sunflower seeds

400g (14.1oz) liquid. Use all the leftover buttermilk and make up the difference with water.

To learn more about no-knead bread dough temperature control click here.

If you are using active dry yeast, then you may need to let it sit in the water for 10 minutes before adding the other ingredients or else it could take a lot longer to raise the dough.

Method

1. Make the butter manually. Pour the cream in a jar and add the salt. Close the lid and shake the hell out of it until the fat and liquid separate. Reserve the liquid and wash the butter in cold water until the water is clear. Shape, wrap up, and store.
2. Make the butter with a mixer. Pour the cream in the bowl and add the salt. Whisk on high speed for 3 – 4 minutes or until the fat and liquid separate. Finish by performing the same steps as above.
3. Make the bread. In a large bowl combine the liquid, salt, yeast, treacle, and seeds. Mix to dissolve the salt, yeast, and treacle. Add the flours and mix to a dough. *Desired dough temperature 25C (77F).
4. Cover and chill for 30 minutes.
6. Cold ferment for 18 – 24 hours.
7. Shape and place in a bread tin. Cover and final proof for 2.5 – 3 hours.
8. Bake at 180C (355F) fan on for 40 minutes. Remove from the tin and bake for another 10 – 15 minutes.

Enjoy your bread and butter!

Keep in mind that the conditions in each kitchen are different, so fermentation times may vary for you. It is up to the baker to control the bread and react accordingly.

Your oven may be different too, so your baking time may vary.

As soon as I baked my first freshly milled flour bread, I started thinking of ways to improve on that base recipe. My first attempt was a simple straight dough mixed and baked on the same day within a few hours.

If you have been following the channel for a little while you’d know how much I like cold fermentation. It improves flavour, makes the dough easier to handle allowing for higher hydration, and it can help with gluten development which can result in nicer ears on scored loaves.

Freshly milled flour makes dough with weaker gluten. On one hand that is a good thing especially if you want a light and airy bread, but it also limits the variety of breads you can make.

To make a taller free-standing loaf with a nice ear the dough needs to be a little stronger. That is where cold fermentation can come in handy. You can use this method for any of your favourite recipes.

There are a couple more things I do to improve the recipe and process. I sift out some of the bran and use it to give the bread a coating. Removing bran also helps the gluten structure. Another thing I did this time is chill the grain in the fridge to lower the milling temperature which prevents the gluten forming proteins from being cooked. It also means we don’t need to wait for the flour to cool down before we use it.

Some of you may notice that this recipe contains a relatively small amount of yeast at only 0.8%. This is because freshly milled flour is more nutritious which allows the yeast to multiply at a faster rate. Usually, I would use 1% yeast for bread made with store-bought flour.

Watch the video down below for detailed instructions.

Ingredients

For the dough –

400g (14.1oz) wheat grain

285g (10.05oz) water

3g (0.1oz) instant dry yeast or 3.6g (0.13oz) active dry yeast or 9g (0.31oz) fresh yeast

7.9g (0.28oz) salt

To learn more about no-knead bread dough temperature control click here.

If you are using active dry yeast, then you may need to let it sit in the water for 10 minutes before adding the other ingredients or else it could take a lot longer to raise the dough.

Method

1. Mill the flour and sift it. Reserve the bran for later.
2. In a large bowl combine the water, yeast, and salt. Mix to dissolve the salt and to hydrate the yeast.
3. Add the flour and mix to a dough. *Desired dough temperature 25C (77F).
4. Cover and chill for 30 minutes.
5. Fold #1.
6. Chill for 30 minutes.
7. Fold #2.
8. Cold ferment for 18 – 24 hours.
9. Pre-shape, rest for 20 minutes, final shape. Place in a breadbasket.
10. Cover and final proof for 1 hour. During this time pre-heat the oven and the baking vessel for 250C (480F) fan on.
11. Invert the dough onto the hot pan and score Spray with water (optional).
12. Cover and place in the oven. Turn the temperature down to 220C (430F) and bake for 25 minutes.
13. Remove the lid and bake for 10 more minutes.

Keep in mind that the conditions in each kitchen are different, so fermentation times may vary for you. It is up to the baker to control the bread and react accordingly.

Your oven may be different too, so your baking time may vary.

I had been thinking about buying a mill for a couple of years and plenty of you have been asking me about home milling. My plan was to finally buy a Mockmill Lino 200 as a Christmas present for myself this year.

Coincidentally, a very nice person from Mockmill emailed me and offered to send me the exact mill that I was going to buy anyway before I pulled the trigger. German Santa came early and made my Christmas!

The mill arrived, I unpacked it and checked it out. It looked great, but I did not use it because I wanted to record my first bake using freshly milled flour. So, it has been a couple of months since I received it and now, I’m trying it for the first time.

I can’t say I had done a huge amount of research in preparation for this bake. Besides reading a couple of extremely well put together and informative articles on www.breadbakingathome.com

Generally, freshly milled heirloom non-mass-produced flour will have weaker gluten. That is one thing I was expecting. Milling heats the flour which is something to look out for because too high of a temperature can cook the gluten forming proteins which would make the weak gluten even weaker.

One thing I did to help with dough structure was to sift out some of the bran from the flour which would even further impair gluten development. I used the sifted bran to give the loaf a nice coating.

With those points in mind, I dove right in. The flour was quite warm after milling, at around 44C (111F), so I let it cool down for a while before mixing the dough. The dough felt weak as expected even at a low hydration of only 64%. It reminded me of spelt flour dough.

Thanks to the abundance of nutrients and active enzymes in freshly milled flour fermentation was relatively quick considering the low yeast content of only 0.7%. This would come in very handy for naturally leavened dough.

I decided to score the loaf with a straight blade since there was no ‘ear’ to be expected from such a weak dough. It baked nicely and developed a nice brown colour and a crunchy crust.

The taste was nice and light and nutty. The texture was soft and slightly chewy. I’m not one to chase large holes in the crumb because I just like a more tightly packed interior a little better, so the crumb of this loaf was totally acceptable to me.

All things considered this was a good first bake and I’m happy that I could finally bake with freshly milled flour after many years of baking with regular store-bought flour. Home milling seems to have great potential and this first bake is just a baseline to work from.

Now we can get to the really interesting part of answering a bunch of questions about how to improve breads made with freshly milled flours, how to make them more versatile, and easier to work with.

But don’t worry I’m not going to just switch to freshly milled flour and leave most of you behind, that would be crazy. Once I figure this out a little better and once I start producing decent recipes I will make sure to either bake two loaves in each video (one with fresh flour and another one with store-bought) or give you reliable instructions, so you can convert a recipe to be made with store-bought flour.

I will add the recipe for this basic loaf just for reference here.

Watch the video down below for detailed instructions.

For the dough –

400g (14.1oz) wheat gain

250g (8.8oz) water

8g (0.28oz) salt

3g (0.1oz) instant dry yeast

1. Mill the flour on the 1^st (finest) setting and leave it to cool down. Sift out 10g of the bran and leave it on the side for later.
2. Make the dough. In a large bowl combine the water, yeast, and salt. Mix well to dissolve the salt. Add the flour and mix to a dough.
3. Cover and ferment for 1 hour.
5. Ferment for 1 more hour.
6. Pre-shape and leave to rest for 20 minutes.
7. Shape, brush with water, and cover with bran. Place in a proofing basket.
8. Final proof 40 minutes.
9. Score and bake with steam starting at 250C (480F) and dropping down to 220C (430F) as soon as the bread goes in the oven. Bake for 25 minutes.
10. Remove the lid or vent the steam and continue baking for another 10 – 15 minutes until the crust starts getting a slight char.