Country Loaf Bread

This recipe is one of my favorite bread recipes and I have been making it for about 20 years!  It is my “go-to”, quick bread recipe – by that I do not mean a quick bread.  It is quick because I do not soak the flour overnight.  Originally I made this bread with a combination of wheat and white flour, have made it with sprouted flour – but this time I was out of sprouted flour, none at the local health food store – so I used a combination of spelt, white and wheat.  Stella requested that I do one loaf with raisins in it, which I had never done before!

This is an easy yeast bread recipe that is great for sandwiches, with soup, toasted or just plain!

Country Loaf Bread

C Bread raisinC Bread plain

Ingredients

1 Tbl yeast (1 package)
2 1/2 cups warm water
2 Tbl sugar, honey or maple syrup (I used honey)
1 Tbl Sea Salt
6 – 7 cups flour (combination of spelt, wheat and white)
1/2 cup flax meal (optional)
1/2 cup raisins
1 – 2 Tbl cinnamon
Sesame, Poppy or Hemp seeds ( I used hemp)
Butter
Cornmeal
1 egg

1. Mix the yeast, water, honey and salt in a large glass or stainless steel bowl.  I use the bowl for my Kitchen Aide.

C Bread yeastC Bread yeast mixed

2. Add 2 cups of flour and beat for two minutes.

C bread 2 cups flour

3. Continue adding 1 cup of flour at a time, mixing after each addition add the flax meal if using.

C bread flax

4. Turn out onto a floured board, keep adding flour until a smooth ball is formed.

C Bread dough

5. Place in a greased bowl, cover and let rise until double in bulk – about 1 hour.

C Bread in bowl

6. Grease 2 loaf pans with butter and sprinkle with cornmeal. You can also grease a cooking sheet and sprinkle with cornmeal.

7. Punch the dough down and divide into two balls.

C Bread first rise

8. Place one ball into a loaf pan, spread out .

9. With the other ball knead in the raisins and cinnamon. I put the raisins in hot water to plump. Place in the other loaf pan and spread.

C Bread plump raisinsC Bread raisins

10. With a sharp knife, make cross slash marks on the top of each loaf.

C Bread knife

11. Brush with a egg wash – 1 egg with 1 Tbl of water.

C Bread egg

12. If you want you can sprinkle sesame seeds, poppy seeds, hemp seeds, etc on top.

C Bread in pans

13.  Allow the dough to rise again, about 45 minutes.

C Bread 2nd rise

14. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 – 45 minutes.

C Bread out of oven

Take out of the loaf pans and cool on a wire rack.   Delicious warm with a good slathering of butter!  The raisin addition to the bread was a HUGE hit!!!

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3 Responses to Country Loaf Bread

  1. Candace says:

    Nice looking loaves of bread! I will try this recipe! : )

  2. Jo says:

    I’ll give this a try….looks yummy. Good idea Stella!

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