Bread

Since the entire world seems to have picked up baking bread now I figured I’d share the recipe that literally carried Megacool through four years in San Francisco. We all took turns to bring loaves to the office for lunch, and it’s been my staple breakfast for the last three years. This is a low hassle, cheap and super quick recipe for extremely tasty bread. No kneading necessary! Prep time is ~25 minutes, you’ll be eating fresh bread ~3 hours after starting.

• 1 L whole wheat flour
• 6 dl regular flour
• 1 pack rapid-rise yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tpsp olive oil (canola also works, use whatever you prefer)
• 1 L lukewarm water
• 4 dl “magic mix”

The magic mix is where your preferences come into play. Feel free to experiment with this part to make the bread your own. I use:

• 2 dl rough chopped walnuts (roughly a handful of walnuts)
• 2 dl oats
• 1 dl flaxseeds

This adds up to ~4 dl when combined since there’s a lot of space between walnuts for the flaxseeds to fill up. If you need to tailor it for someone who can’t have nuts, do a bit more oats and maybe add some other grains you like.

Put whole wheat flour and yeast in a bowl. Fill a measuring cup with your magic mix, then top it up with regular flour until the total is 1 L. Put this into the bowl as well, and add the oil, salt and skin-temperature water. Mix it until it becomes fairly slimy and homogeneous. Divide into two bread forms, and let it rise somewhere warm for 1.5 hours. I usually turn on the oven which makes a good temperature on top of the stove for rising the bread. When they are big enough according to your standards and expectations, put them in the oven for 55 minutes at 200°C (395°F) . At this point, take them out of the forms and put them back in the oven for 10 minutes to give them a good crispy crust. Let them cool for a bit on a wire cooking tray, then dig in.

What you don’t eat I recommend freezing sliced, then it’s easy to just take out what you want and toast it later. Enjoy!