Simple Acorn Brown Bread
This simple bread recipe takes only a few minutes to prepare and is delicious. Total prep time is less than ten minutes, though there is a fair bit of waiting for yeast to do its work in the middle. The resulting bread is dense but fluffy and has a surprisingly soft mouth feel.
Ingredients
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups acorn flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp or one packet dry yeast
2 cups water
Optional: 1.5 cups sourdough starter (reduce the amounts of flour above to account for flour in the starter).
1 tbsp butter
Directions
Making a starter. Note: If you have sourdough starter you can skip this step and use your sourdough starter instead.
Add 1 cup water to a bowl, along with 1/4 cup of wheat flour and 1/4 cup of acorn flour and the dry yeast.
Mix well, set someplace warm (aprx 90 degrees) for half an hour.
Setting a timer so you don’t forget it can be helpful. You will know the yeast is activated and working when you see bubbles in the starter mix.
Making the bread
Add your starter to a bowl, along with the remaining flour and salt. Mix well.
Knead for 4-6 minutes in an electric mixer or 6-8 minutes by hand. Putting a small amount of butter or oil on your hands before kneeding can be helpful to reduce sticking.
Form loaves by making balls the size of your fist and then shaping them as you desire. I have successfully made small buns, loaves, and rings. Do what makes you happy.
Let rise until loaves have almost doubled in size. If you do this someplace warm and humid (ideally around 90 farenheight again) this can take as little as 2 hours. Alternately, if you set it someplace cool you can let it rise overnight to have fresh bread in the morning for your breakfast.
Baking the bread
Put a small oven-safe container containing 1 cup water in the oven to raise the humidity as it bakes and produce a softer loaf. Preheat oven to 375 farenheight.
Add butter to the top of your risen loaves, spreading evenly. This will help the bread stretch and rise as it bakes.
Add bread to oven, cook for 40 minutes.
Remove from heat and let cool until warm, not hot. Best served still warm.
