For the artisan in you – hand craft a loaf today!

2 cups  warm water
1/4 cup  honey
1/4 cup  Highwood Crossing Organic Canola Oil
4 tsp  yeast
1 Tbsp  salt
2/3 cup  Highwood Crossing Organic Flax Seed
1/2 cup  sunflower seeds
1 cup  Highwood Crossing Organic Dark Rye Flour
1 cup  Highwood Crossing Organic Whole Wheat Flour
2-3 cups  Highwood Crossing Organic Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

Combine the warm water, honey, oil and yeast in a large bowl, cover and let sit for 10 minutes until frothy.

Add the salt, flax seed, sunflower seeds, rye flour and whole-wheat flour to the wet mixture and mix well with a large spoon.

Add the all-purpose flour to make a workable mass (amount will vary depending on the humidity and the age of the flour). At some point you won’t be able to use the spoon to incorporate any more of the flour and then it’s best to dump ingredients onto a lightly floured counter.

How can you tell when enough flour has been added to make good dough? You don’t want too stiff of dough (too much flour that makes it hard to knead). It is better to start kneading with a bit stickier dough and gradually add more flour as you knead. Too stiff dough doesn’t rise well and is very tough to shape into loaves.

Knead the mass into a ball of dough. Swoosh flour mass into a round like shape with both hands, kneading and turning dough a quarter turn as you go. You may need to dust the counter with a bit more flour as the dough may stick to the counter. Try just to dust, not to add a lot of flour. Keep kneading for about 8 to 10 minutes total time.

Put dough into a large, oiled bowl. Roll dough in oil to cover the whole surface and cover bowl with lid or cloth. Let dough rise in a warm, draft-free place for about 1 hour or until doubled in size. Some people put dough in a clear plastic container with a tight-fitting lid and put a mark on the side, so they know when dough has doubled.

Grease or oil two 9×5-inch bread pans and have ready.

Deflate the dough by pressing your fists into the risen dough. Turn out onto lightly floured counter and divide into 2 pieces. Tuck the rough-cut side into the dough and shape with your hands into a tight oval shape. Set into greased pans. The loaves now need to proof until double in size. We have found that clear plastic garbage bags work great for this proofing stage. Set each pan inside the bags and tuck up the ends, forming a large air-pocket for loaves to rise within, without touching the bag. This way you can watch them rise and can tell when they have doubled – usually about 1 hour, but it depends on the temperature in the house. Set them on top of the fridge for extra warmth.

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Once loaves have doubled, bake for about 30-40 minutes or until golden and when tapped on the bottom of the pan, there is a hollow sound.

Makes 2 loaves.