Basic Wholemeal Bread

Nina
Apr 20, 2024
2 min read

Freshly baked bread is just heaven. We love our bread and used to bake ourselves back in Switzerland as well. Now living on the boat we just had to overcome some little hurdles but we love baking on SERENDIPITY IV at anytime.

There is the hurdle of the yeast being a litte delicate and shouldn't be in a draughty place while rising. We just switch off the fan and close the window in the galley for the kneading stage and we find this works. And for the fact that you can't use scales on a boat because we are always moving, I mix the dry ingredients for a few loafs and keep the portions in click-lock containers or zipper bags ready to use at any time. I marked my containers so I just have to fill up to the lines without weighing.

Recipe

As our breadmaker wouldn't work anymore after 18 months, we normally just bake the bread in a cake tin in our gas oven. We actually then use two portions to fit a 30 cm tin.

But this recipe works fine in a breadmaker. When using a breadmaker add the fluid ingredients first, then the flour mixture and salt. Use a program for wholemeal bread.

Dry Ingredients (prepared beforehand in containers)

250 g wheat flour
210 g rye flour
1 teaspoon dry yeast

Liquid Ingredients and salt

1 teaspoon salt
180 ml water
100 ml milk (preferably not out of the fridge)
20 g butter or 1 tablespoon olive oil

This is how it's done

Put the flour mixture (prepared dry ingredients) in a bowl. Add the salt and liquid ingredients and mix it to make the dough.
Knead it well and set to rest for about an hour or until it’s double its seize. Be careful that it isn’t in a draught otherwise the yeast might not work well.
Lightly knead it again and put it in a paper-lined cake tin and let it rest again until the oven has warmed up to about 180°C.
Bake it for about 50 minutes. To check if it’s done, take it out of the tin and knock on the bottom. If it sounds hollow it’s done.

Tips & Variations

After the dough has risen to double its seize, knead a small hand full of any seed, nuts, or raisins in, depending on your mood, stock, and taste.