Bread, bread, and more bread.....

When Ron and I traveled through Holland in 1988, we visited Dutch friends we worked with in Sudan. We traveled by train and planned to make our visit quite short in order to catch the next train. Johan and Carla planned for us to stay for lunch. We hated to be a burden, but Johan insisted that it wasn’t trouble to include us and that we would be having “a typical Dutch meal: bread, bread and more bread.”

It was a wonderful meal, and a wonderful Dutch meal with cheese, meat, and butter and good hearty bread. In our carb-phobic culture, I am sad that we don’t center more of our meals on the staff of life. We tend to add it to an already full menu and rarely do we base our meal (with the exception of sandwiches) on bread. Maybe the commercial mass produced bread is not a worthy base for a decent meal.

I love bread. And I love making bread. I am happy it is finally bread baking season once again. The season started with 100 whole wheat health rolls made for the meeting’s Holiday Dinner last Sunday. Deborah asked for the recipe and it is included below. This week we’ve managed to make and deliver over 35 loaves of whole grain bread (see previous blog post for December 2005). The church smells wonderful and we are blessed with the opportunity to visit many friends this week. I won’t claim that our bread is better than commercial bread, but it is handmade with organic whole grains and natural ingredients. Our goal is to make a bread worthy of a good Dutch meal…….

Whole Wheat Health Rolls
(Based on a recipe from Living magazine)

½ c. bulgur wheat
1 c. milk, warm
1 pkg. dry yeast
½ c. honey
2 large eggs, beaten
½ c. oatmeal or 7 grain mix rolled cereal
1 ½ c. whole wheat flour
1 t. ground pepper
1 T. salt
2 ½ to 3 ½ c. flour
2 T. or more olive oil
3 T. mixed seeds (sesame, poppy seeds, flax seed)
1 T. flaky sea salt
Place bulgur in pan with 2 c. water and bring to boil, reduce to simmer and cook until bulghur is tender and water absorbed, 12-25 minutes. Let cool. In mixer bowl mix warm milk, honey and yeast. Set aside until foamy, 5-6 minutes. On low speed add eggs, oatmeal, whole wheat flour, pepper, salt, 2 T. olive oil, and cooled bulgur. Add enough flour to make a soft, sticky dough and with a hook, knead for about 3 minutes. Brush inside of bowl with olive oil and place dough in bowl, brush with more olive oil and cover with plastic, let rise until double, 1 -2 hours. Generously oil 8 inch round pans and divide dough in half, making 11 portions for each of 2 pans. Brush tops with olive oil and cover with plastic wrap to rise, 20-25 minutes. Bake 375 degrees, sprinkle tops with seeds and salt and bake until dark golden brown, 20-22 minutes. Cool for 12 minutes before removing from pan.