Vollkornbrot: 100% Whole Grain Bread, and My Favorite Gazpacho

Vollkornbrot: 100% Whole Grain Bread, and My Favorite Gazpacho

Hearty bread lovers, this is one for us!!!

Honestly, I wasn't sure I would like this bread.  It sounded too dense--rye flakes, whole wheat flour, wheat berries.  All purpose flour wasn't used, and the dough wasn't enriched with eggs or milk.


Wow, this bread is wonderful!  As soon as I bit into my first bite, I said "where is the deli mustard!?"  This bread can really stand up to hearty sandwiches. 


The wheat berries and rye flakes came from my local health food store.  The dough seemed wetter than usual.  However, the recipe didn't say to presoak the wheat berries.  After 24 hours, the wheat berries had soaked up much of the excess moisture.  


I rolled out the dough into a rectangle.  My favorite 4 sided folding method gives the breads a nice rectangle shape.  For more information, check out my prior post: Folding technique for a rectangular loaf
The instructions are in the middle of the page.

After placing the dough in the loaf pan, I covered it with a shower cap to rise.  Shower caps work wonderfully.  It's fun to repurpose household items; it saves me from using plastic wrap.  

We really enjoyed the finished bread with a chicken cacciatore dinner.

The leftover bread made wonderfully hearty croutons when mixed with olive oil, garlic powder, onion powder and Italian seasoning.   They were baked in a 450 degree oven, just after I took something else out of the oven--energy saving!


The croutons seemed just perfect for a cold summer soup.  To me, nothing screams "summer" to me like gazpacho or ratatouille. So, this month, I decided to make my favorite gazpacho recipe.  Here's my favorite low calorie recipe, which is delicious!.

Gazpacho (Chilled Salad Soup)
Adapted from Weight Watchers
(Makes 4 servings)

1 cup tomato juice**** (see substitutions below)
1 packet or tsp instant beef broth and seasoning mix
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 medium cucumber, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced green bell pepper
1/4  cup diced onion
1 TBSP olive oil
2 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp lemon juice 
3-4 garlic cloves (less, if you don't like garlic)
1/4 tsp salt
dash pepper
2 drops hot sauce (I use 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper)

Combine tomato juice and broth mix in a small saucepan and bring to a boil.  Remove from heat and let cool.  Combine remaining ingredients in work bowl of a food processor.  Process until
vegetables are finely chopped.  Add cooled tomato mixture;
process just until combined.  Refrigerate at least 2 hours, preferably
overnight, before serving.


*** can substitute 1/2cup tomato sauce & 1/2cup water or 1 cup water, several TBSP tomato paste, salt and pepper. Whatever you have on hand.
 

About the HBinFive Baking Group
The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes book. To see what my HB5 baking buddies have made recently, check out The 17th HBin5 Bread Braid

Thanks for stopping by to visit!  Come back soon, I'll be baking again often.  I hope you will leave a comment below.

Judy