Supposedly pumpkin seeds have properties that are very good for you. Sounds good to me. Good excuse to eat more of this bread. It is loaded with them.
If you make this bread, make sure you add more seeds to the frying pan when toasting them so that you will have extra for "quality control purposes."
Don't let the word "rye" scare you away. I took a loaf of this to work and told everyone that it was pumpkin and sunflower seed bread (didn't mention the rye). It was a huge hit. I don't think they would have tried it if I had told them it was rye bread.
This bread will make a regular appearance in my house. It's that good.
What would I do differently? I think I'd probably bake it in a loaf pan because the dough is pretty slack.
This recipe makes one approximately 2 pound loaf and can easily be doubled.
Toasted Sunflower Seed and Pumpkin Seed Bread with Rye Sourdough
Ingredients
Sourdough
1 ounce fed 100% sourdough starter
3.2 ounce whole rye flour
2.6 ounce water
Soaker
2.7 ounces rye chops (I found them at King Arthur Flour)
2.7 ounces water
Dough
10.2 ounces bread flour
1.6 ounces unsalted sunflower seeds
1.6 ounces unsalted pumpkin seeds
8 ounces water
1 3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp malt syrup (can be found at Whole Foods)
Soaker and sourdough
Instructions
Mix the sourdough and soaker with a spoon in separate bowls about 14 to 24 hours in advance, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit at room temperature.
Very lightly oil a cast iron or heavy frying pan and toast the seeds, stirring constantly, until they are fragrant and browned. Do not walk away as the seeds will burn very quickly. Remove the seeds from the pan and allow to cool.
Put all of the ingredients, including the seeds, soaker, and sourdough, into the bowl of a stand mixer and mix for 3 minutes on low with the dough hook. Scrape the bowl and mix for three minutes more on the second lowest speed.
Allow the dough to rise for one hour.
Shape the dough into a boule, batard, or a panned loaf (use a 10 inch by 5 inch loaf pan).
Allow to rise for about an hour.
Preheat the oven to 460 degrees F and set up a steam pan on the lowest rack.
Slash the loaf and place it on the middle rack, add boiling water to the steam pan, spray the oven with water, and close the oven door.
Bake for 15 minutes and lower the oven's temperature to 440 degrees F and bake for another 30 minutes, until the interior of the bread reaches 200 degrees F.
Cool on a rack.
This recipe was adapted from a recipe kindly provided to our Artisan Bread Bakers Facebook page by David Wolfe of Hearth Baked Tunes. He adapted this recipe from Jeffrey Hamelman.
