Crunchy Seed Braid

Just because I haven't posted anything since Alaska doesn't mean we haven't been eating... or cooking. I just burned out from too much eating PRO on the go. I took home the rest of the white whole wheat flour that we had up there, and figured I should use it up, so went perusing through King Arthur Flour's whole grain recipe section, and wound up making their crunchy seed braid. It was good, although I made a few changes - like adding giant flakes of sea salt to the seed mixture. And I actually think that it might have been better if I put the seeds on the braid after braiding it, because when you put the seeds on first, like the recipe says, you end up with little lines of seeds inside the bread, which means that its a little less coherent. I don't know if thats a good thing or a bad thing, it really depends what you want to do with the bread. I can tell you now, its not so great with jam. More of a butter or soup kind of bread.



I've pasted the recipe below, with my changes.

Crunchy seed braid

1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
3 Tbs vegetable oil
2 tsp instant yeast
2 Tbs sugar
2 cups King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
1 1/2 cups King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour, white wheat preferred
1/2 cup seeds - flax, black sesame, poppy, sea salt
1/2 cup traditional rolled oats - skipped this as I was out of oatmeal, used more whole wheat flour instead
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup nonfat dry milk

Topping:
1 large egg white beaten with 1 tablespoon cold water
generous 1/2 cup mixed seeds

Mix together the water, oil, sugar, and yeast. Add everything else, knead. It was fairly dry, and very dense. Took lots of kneading. Let it rise for 1-2 hours. It didn't get all that puffy, I think that's ok. After it's risen, punch it down and divide into three equally-sized pieces. Roll these into snakes, the longer the better, about 2 feet each. Coat each log with some beaten egg white and roll it in seeds, then let them sit for 15 minutes. You want pretty good coverage with the seeds.

Pinch together the ends of the logs, and braid them. Then fold under the ends. Pour the rest of the seeds over the top. Cover the braid, and let it rise another hour.

Preheat the oven to 425F. Transfer the braid to the oven when its preheated, and after 15 minutes, cover it with foil so that it doesn't burn, reduce the temperature to 350, and cook another 10-15 minutes. It should be golden-crusted and the seeds should be all crunchy and delicious.