Whole Wheat Pumpkin Seed Sandwich Bread

 

This is a recipe I created on the morning of Thanksgiving Sunday. I was already making dinner rolls so I decided to throw this together to have sandwich bread ready for turkey sandwiches. 

I wanted the bread to have a bit more flavour than the plain old white bread I had been making, so I decided to go about 50% whole wheat flour this this one.

As with most of my breads that have some sort of sugar component I used maple syrup instead of granulated sugar. This adds a bit more moisture to the dough, but even with around 70% hydration, because of the whole wheat flour absorbs so much moisture the dough ends up fairly dry and easy to work with.

The pumpkin seeds add a nice taste and texture to the finished bread, and they happen to be good for you!

The Recipe!

550g Whole Wheat Flour

460g All Purpose Flour

700g Warm Water (around 110 F)

50g Maple syrup

20g Kosher salt

20g Yeast

1 ½ C Pumpkin Seeds

Add water, maple syrup and yeast to the bowl of the stand mixer and allow yeast to bloom (around 5-10 minutes).

Once the yeast mixture is ready to go, add the flour and mix with your dough hook attachment. Once combined, go ahead and add the salt and let the mixer go on low for a couple of minutes until a nice dough ball starts to form. Then go ahead and add the seeds and allow to fully combine.

Transfer the dough ball to a lightly greased bowl, cover and place it somewhere warm and draft free (my oven works the best for me). Allow the dough to rise for 1 - 1 1/2 hours until it doubles in size.

When risen, punch down the dough and turn it out onto your bench, and knead it for a couple of minutes. Divide into 2 halves. Shape into loaves and place in prepared bread pans. 

Cover again and let rise for another hour or so.

I baked these at 375F for about 45 minutes to an hour. An instant read probe thermometer will tell you when the bread is ready to come out. When the internal temp reaches around 190F you're good to go.

Remove from oven and turn out of the pans onto a cooling rack right away. Allow to fully cool before slicing and enjoying.