Azélia of Azeilas Kitchen really made me laugh recently on Twitter, she was talking about wholesome breads and wearing stick-on beards and socks and sandals and I thought about the bread I had just made and it fits that category to perfection.
I haven’t worn facial hair since I rode a pushbike through the streets in a Groucho Marx mask one night from one party to another, but I have had the pleasure at least and I urge you to do it one day if you haven’t.
I started with what I had in the kitchen; sprouted pulses and some walnuts left over from Christmas. I have dug out my sprouting jar recently, thanks to the reminder from the 52 week salad challenge so I thought I would post this as my February contribution, as the frost has got hold of the last of the wintering vegetables and herbs in the garden this month. Edit: I have just found the round up page on VP’s blog for the last one. Have a look and join in. Lots of wonderful info on growing micro greens that I am going to read up on right now….
I wonder if children do sprouting in schools now as we did? Even if you don’t take much interest in growing your own food in your teenage and young adult years, if you have had these experiences as a child, they are something to draw upon later in life when maybe you have more time to garden and participate in the great elemental joy of growing some of your own food.
This loaf used sweet walnut pieces, our home grown sprouts, thick yoghurt, water, Felin Ganol flours, yeast and seasalt. I need to make it again before I can be sure I have got the numbers right, I scribbled them down on a piece of paper and they looked a bit odd when I came to write them up here.
We had slices of this soft and nutty bread with cottage cheese, some mung bean sprouts and a sprinkling of za’atar, a mix of thyme, sumac, salt and sesame seeds. Can’t get much nicer than that in my book and in fact it’s all gone now, every last little bit!
Sprouted grains are lovely too just dressed with a simple dressing of lemon, oil and mustard as part of a salad with a toasted bun. I think they have a great affinity with nuts, so mix them up with pine nuts, or walnuts or whatever you have around.
Mitchdafish has just tweeted me this picture….(she had a chunk of this loaf to try at home) …. hee hee!
Zeb Bakes 
I like the idea of sprouts and nuts. I’m going to try it this weekend. :)
Thanks Misk!
This bread sounds right up my alley, i have the sprouts, the yoghurt everything, i bet it is great! c
Our alley is decidedly parky this morning – the arctic weather has finally got here !
I used to love it when at school we got to grow things like sprouts and beans. My youngest boy grew sprouts when he was in Kindy so I think some schools are carrying on with the tradition. Your bread looks very yummy and I love the sound of the ingredients.
That’s good to hear :) I know the Bread Campaign here have a grow your own wheat field project, but somehow I think sprouts and cress are more immediate and accessible for everyone.
The title of this post captivated me – and I wasn’t disappointed :) What a brilliant bread.
Glad you like the look of the bread Kari :)
This post is awesome, love the Groucho Sandwich
That’s very kind of you, I hope lots of people will look at the children’s resources and designs you offer at Kid independent. My friend Misk dressed up her rolls the other day in clothes, they looked fab.
I do hope you ate this bread and salad Joanna while wearing the Groucho mask and little bits of sprouted beans stuck to your mustache? ;-)
I am going to track down this weekend the stick-on beard & hat obviously…already have the *socks & sandals*….. in order to make an equally worthy loaf. xx
Can’t wait to see you in your Gandalf outfit Az ;) . I had poodles hanging on either ends of my tache, sharking for cottage cheese while I ate these !
That’s light crumb, humour & worthiness, all in one loaf – quite the achievement.
Yes, the recent cold snap has finally killed off some of the garden remnants but it was positively unnerving to see them at this time of year anyway.
The ambient temperature in the house is so cold that at some point I need to section out one of the rooms and maintain that at a reasonable temperature for all of the various projects that are currently stalling rather than fermenting or sprouting.
I was amazed that B ate it! Iis it wholemeal? He asked suspiciously? I said no, it’s white and rye from lovely Felin Ganol in Wales.
A Spanish friend told me that her gran used to swaddle the dough in a special blanket and give it the warmest spot in the cottage by the fire -village no electricity -and sometimes take it to bed at night.
The central heating is on here, plus long undies, two jumpers, woollie slippers, and a poodle stole or should that be tippet ? ;)
That bread looks delicious :)
I like your proudly posed lentil – mine fell over when I tried to do that!
Thanks for your February contribution – have bookmarked your tweet about it ready for next week’s Salad Days roundup on’t blog ;)
Thankyou VP! I have been washing out trays to embark on micro greens, have to say previous attempts at indoor lettuce resulted in very feathery/papery and not very nice leaves, but I am going to visit some of the amazing blogs you link to and hope to improve my technique :)
My brother in law and I used to walk around the shopping mall with Groucho Marx glasses and mustaches in place. My sister wouldn’t walk with us- she kept much in the background. But most people didn’t pay us much attention- it was rather fun and kind of freeing in a strange way.
I have no problem posting today, Joanna, but every once in a while those huge letters appear and cover up the comment box. :( Not sure why.
you are a kindred spirit Heidi :D Smiling from ear to ear under my tache….
I have asked Support about the giant letters, if anyone else reading this has a similar experience please let me know, won’t you?
Looks lovely – such a lot of different textures in your loaf, and so beautifully risen too. I like the idea of a poodle tippet!!! I’ve taken to trying to keep sourdough starters happy by wrapping a towel in a hot water bottle and then putting it next to the radiator. Hot water bottle keeps warm for a few hours and then early morning heating kicks in…. obsessesed!
We used to grow mustard and cress. Actually, I think it was mostly mustard because that was even quicker than cress. I remember doing that aged about 6, on wads of damp kitchen roll. Magic for a child! Good luck with all your sprouting, sounds like an interesting project!
Thanks C. Your starters sound like they have a loving home :) I am going to add some mustard seed into my next batch of sprouts and I have just got some micro greens to try and see how it goes. Little and often rather than too many all in one go. :)
Beautiful looking bread,,, I don’t think you need to try it again to see if you have the numbers right…just bake it again to send me a loaf…a slice even…
Bless You
paul
Thanks for your vote of confidence Paul, that’s very kind of you :)
That loaf looks terribly healthy, as does the whole meal! I’ve never worn Groucho glasses, but I have run around for a day beeping a Harpo horn at people as they walked past – does that count? :)
Beep! Morning Celia! Yes it does :D
I also made bread as part of the challenge this month. Mine was supposed to be more of a naan type bread, but I almost certainly added too much yeast, so i got oddly shaped buns instead.
I would love your recipe, because I really liked the taste and texture. Either that, or I need to learn how to make naan before I follow a recipe that says “flatten it out as you do a naan bread”
I haven’t got a hard and fast version of this bread in recipe form, but you could always make Dan Lepard’s splendid sprout bread which was the inspiration for this bread and which I made a couple of years ago. You can find the recipe for that here or in his new book Short and Sweet.
Do remember that if you make one of his recipes that we are asked not to write them out on our blogs but link to where the recipes are authorised to be published as I have done here.
Great, thank you. I am not a very experienced bread baker, so need the security of a recipe, but practice makes perfect :)
Thanks for the advice about writing his recipe. I generally think that this is good practice, but I understand that people are keen to share recipes that they have made and loved.
Great homemade bread, a perfect companion for a salad!
Many, many years ago when I was a child, we sprouted seeds in school. We were instructed to take them home and plant them in our gardens (everyone had a garden then). I think our teachers back then would have been horrified if we had eaten the sprouts!
Happy Gardening!
Lea
Lea’s menagerie
Hi Lea, hee hee
It’s funny how times have changed isn’t it?
Happy Gardening to you too :)