Sunday bakes - 'Feeling good' flax seed bread

A friend at work recently told us over drinks that her family bakes their own bread every day, using a bread maker. Her husband, who for years suffered from IBS, found that after a few weeks eating home-made bread this had improved dramatically. Even with a brief search on Google and you can easily find the reasons why this might happen. 
The mass-produced bread we can buy today are just loaded with chemicals to improve their flavour and texture and worse, the flour used to make it in the first place is modified so the bread can be baked quickly, with no timely fermenting process.
Now I'm fortunate that I don't have these health problems, but that's not to say that I never will; inflammatory illnesses like this can happen at any time. But my main concern is the level of chemicals that we have been ingesting. I have been increasingly interested in the level of synthetic hormones working their way into our systems, the chemicals in our environment that can induce hormonal changes and how this affects our overall health. Whilst chemicals can be helpful and necessary for some people to manage certain conditions I am more wary that I used to be of the side effects and the impact of non-medicinal chemicals. 
After talking to my friend I decided to try out my own bread recipes, which I have been honing over the last few weeks, adding in healthier alternatives and additions.

I don't have a bread maker but this recipe is actually really easy and kneading is not as hard as I thought it was. I added flax seeds because they are a really great addition to your diet being rich in Omega-3 and great for your skin and hair. I substituted the vegetable oil for coconut oil which does boost the flavour but is also a healthier fat. 

Ingredients
500g (1llb) wholemeal strong flour
3 tbsp coconut oil
3 tbsp flax seeds (linseeds)
1.5 tbsp dried active yeast (I like Allinson's for hand baking only variety)
300ml water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

Method
Mix the sugar in with 1 parts boiling water to 2 parts cold water to make 300ml of warm sugar water, then whisk in the yeast. Leave this to froth up for 15 minutes. Make sure you do this in a big enough jug, because it will bubble over and make a mess. 
Put the seeds in a pestle and mortar and grind until the seeds are broken down. You need to crush up the seeds because otherwise they will just pass through your system and you won't benefit from the nutrients. Put the salt into a big bowl and pour the flour on top, add the crushed seeds and the coconut oil. Pour the frothed up water and yeast over the flour and mix with a fork until the mixture is a consistent ball. 
Get your hands in there and start mixing with your fingers, knead the dough in the bowl. To do this I've been using a twisting action pushing down with my middle knuckles, splaying my fingers, then folding the mixture back in on itself. Do this for 5-10 minutes. Pick up the mixture, making sure to leave the bowl as clean as possible and spritz the inside of the bowl with a little coconut oil just to make sure the mixture doesn't stick then put the dough back in again, cover the bowl with a wet tea towel and leave in a warm spot to rise for an hour. 
Line a tin with greaseproof paper and as gently as possible move the dough into the tin, it will deflate a little, but don't worry it comes back up again. Cover the tin with the tea towel and leave to rise for another hour. 
Heat the oven to 180 and bake the bread for 40 minutes until the crust is crispy and the loaf sounds hollow when you tap it. 

Make sure you eat this hot when it's at its best, but the crumb will firm up the next day and make better sandwiches and toast. 

I love this bread, it smells amazing, it's really not that much effort to make and I know exactly what is in my toast. My next step is going to be sourcing local flour made from older types of grains, the newer breeds are chosen to grow faster and have fewer nutrients but this is a big step to cutting the processing chemicals from my diet and hopefully cutting the risks associated with them. 

Sunday bakes - 'save some for tomorrow' tomato pasta bake

This summer is great for tomatoes, as long as you keep them watered they will ripen and caramelise in the sun.
This pasta bake is full of sweet tomatoes and basil, with some of the pasta swapped for bulgar wheat to add a different texture.

Ingredients
8 vine ripened tomatoes, quartered
Handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
Half a red pepper, diced
1 cup of bulgard wheat
1.5 cups of pasta
A pack of basil leaves (about 10 leaves)
3/4 a jar of pesto
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp Ketchup
50g of grated cheddar

Method
Cook up the pasta and the bulgar wheat in boiling water, drain, and stir all the ingredients, except the cheese together in a baking dish.

Scatter the cheese on top and bake in the oven until bubbling and golden.

This is about as simple as dinner gets, and there will be plenty for lunch tomorrow too.

Sunday bakes - 'good grief it's hot' gooseberry and apple pie

When I was little we used to have huge blackcurrant bushes, all around the vegetable patch. The summer used to be spent underneath these bushes, making dens in the shade that smelled of blackcurrants. In with these bushes was a single, small gooseberry bush. I absolutely love gooseberries, but they are hard to find now that we don't have that little bush anymore.
This gooseberry pie uses the tinned gooseberries, their softness boils down to a gooseberry treacle which works well with apple. cooked gently and left with a little bite.

Ingredients
One pack of shortcrust pastry
Two tins of gooseberries
One pink lady apple, cored and sliced
4 tbsp brown sugar

Method
Add the sugar and gooseberries to a saucepan and heat gently, stirring as little as necessary until the mixture is treacle like, but keep as many as the gooseberries in tact as possible.

Roll out the pastry until it's ab out 4mm thick and line a pie dish, blind bake until just starting to change colour, then cover the bottom with the sliced apples. Pour the gooseberry mixture over the top and cover with pasty.

You can either have a solid top, or cut thin slices of pastry and weave them together to form a lattice top.

Paint the pastry in milk and bake at about 180 for twenty minutes until golden brown.

I served this with an apricot and peach frozen yoghurt which worked wonderfully.