KS Quotient
Easy: Easy mix, few ingredients. Makes a great gift. No hand-shaping required.
This recipe enables you to prepare an appealing jar of bread mix to give a friend, relative, or anyone on your gift list. (I like to make up an extra jar, so I can easily treat myself once in a while.) Even a novice baker can turn out this crusty, attractive loaf without muss or fuss and no ingredients other than water and a little vegetable oil. The big, rustic, versatile loaf has a mild yet addictive grain flavor and a light, springy, slightly holey crumb. It smells and tastes like an artisan bread, yet requires no artisan skills.
The flavor comes from the subtle blending of four grains, including some brown rice flour, and three seeds, including flax seed. These ingredients are not likely to be on hand in your cupboard, but are usually stocked in the gluten-free baking sections of health food stores, as well as in some large supermarkets.
Alternatively, prepare your own brown rice flour by grinding uncooked brown rice to a powder using a blender or clean coffee mill. (Measure out the ¼ cup after the flour is ground.) Regular long-grain brown rice will do, but if you can find it, brown basmati rice delivers the sweetest flavor. In a pinch, omit the flax seed from the recipe and add an extra 2 teaspoons each of the sesame and poppy seeds. The bread flavor will not be quite as irresistible, but will still be very good.
Yield: 1 quart of mix, yielding 1 large loaf
3 cups (15 ounces) unbleached white bread flour
¼ cup (1.25 ounces) whole wheat flour
¼ cup brown rice flour
2 tablespoons rolled oats or quick-cooking (not instant) oats
2½ tablespoons granulated sugar
1½ teaspoons table salt
1½ tablespoons each sesame seeds, poppy seeds, and flax seed, mixed together
2 tablespoons cornmeal, preferably yellow
1 packet instant, fast-rising, or bread machine yeast
Set out a completely dry clear glass or transparent plastic 1-quart or 1-liter jar, along with its lid. Set out a square of heavy-duty aluminum foil to use as a funnel. (Or use a funnel, if you have one.)
Place the white flour on the foil, then use the foil as a funnel to add the flour to the jar. Rap the jar on the counter to even and compact the layer. Thoroughly stir together the whole wheat flour, brown rice flour, oats, sugar, salt, and all but 1½ tablespoons of the seed mixture on the foil. Add to the jar; rap it again to even the layer. Put the remaining seeds and the cornmeal in a small plastic bag; close tightly. Push the bag and the yeast packet into the neck of the jar. If it will be shipped, push crumpled wax paper into any extra space at the top. Attach a sheet or card with the instructions for making the bread to the jar.
StorageThe unopened mix will keep for up to 1½ months unrefrigerated, 3 months refrigerated.
Don't forget to give the following recipe along with your gift
