Grant Loaf

Today has been a very shitty day, one hell of a stressful long ass day. I've spent half the day at the tax office trying to solve a problem that some incompetent police officer caused and later I had to run some errands and buy the gifts for my mom's birthday (which is in two weeks and I need to rearrange mu schedule and squeeze in a birthday cake between my already planned blog recipes).

I'm finally at home, sitting on my couch after a well deserved shower, in front of the laptop and with a warm cup of oat milk by my side. Plus I've prepared a delicious overnight oatmeal for tomorrow's breakfast to ensure myself the day is off to a good start. No place like home. *Sigh*

Talking about starting the morning off right, the bread I bring you today is perfect to make toasts and sandwiches: I love the taste of the crust when it's toasted and pairs so well with avocado, a generous layer of homemade almond butter and chopped nuts (if you add a drizzle of maple syrup then you'll be in heaven!).

This kind of no-knead bread is called a Grant Loaf and was accidentally created by Doris Grant back in 1944, she was a true believer of the benefits of wholemeal flour and found out that this quick bread was surprisingly good and, being heavier than regular breads, perfect for toasts.

The original recipe calls for whole wheat flour and muscovado sugar but I made some changes and used whole spelt flour and white spelt flour (both organic) and molasses.

So now when you're craving for homemade bread but don't have the time to knead or wait this is your recipe. It stays fresh for three days or so and you can make toasts with the leftovers, which is what I did because the recipes yields one big bread (I weighed it and mine was a bit more than 1kg!/around 2 pounds).

Receta en castellano disponible en El Granero Integral. 

Grant Loaf
(yields 1 big bread)
Ingredients
350 g organic whole spelt flour.
350 g organic white spelt flour.
1 1/4 tsp salt.
15 g fresh yeast.
600 ml lukewarm water.
1 generous tsp molasses (or honey).
Optional: black sesame seeds to sprinkle on top.

Directions

In a large mixing bowl, combine together the flour and salt; make a well in the center.

In a small bowl, crumble fresh yeast with your fingers. Add in molasses and stir in around 150 ml of the warm water. Mix everything together until smooth and well combined. Let the yeast mixture rest for 10 minutes approximately until it starts to foam (small air bubbles appear on the surface). If the yeast doesn't bubble it's because the yeast is either expired or the water was too warm.

Add this yeast mixture and the rest of the water (450 ml) to the center of the flour-salt mitxure.

Using your own hands mix all ingredients vigorously moving the hands from the sides of the bowl to the center. Work the dough (inside the bowl, this is a no-knead recipe) for 3 minutes or so until the dough feels elastic and doesn't stick too much to the sides of the bowl. It should be way more humid than regular bread dough so don't be afraid if it sticks to your hands, actually it should!

Transfer the dough into a lightly greased big loaf pan, cover with a damp cloth and let it rise in a warm place for 35 minutes. 

Meanwhile preheat oven to 200 ºC (392 ºF).

Once the dough has risen, sprinkle black sesame seeds on top and bake (rack in middle position) for about 35 to 40 minutes.

The bread should be ready when it looks golden and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Remove from the pan and transfer to a cooling rack.

This bread stays fresh and tender for around 4 days but if you aren't going to consume the whole bread you can freeze it up to one month (or freeze separate slices which is much more handy).

Leftovers are perfect to make toasts! :-)