Nutty Crunchy Homemade Bread

1. First thing to do is to crack the nuts and seeds. So combine the almonds, oat groats, sunflower and pumpkin seeds in your blender and pulse a few times until they are, well, cracked.

2. Second is to grind up your grains, so mill wheat berries (6 cups to yield 9 cups flour), sprouted wheat berries (1 cup to yield 1 1/2 cups flour), and oat groats (1 1/2 cups to yield 2 cups flour).

3. Combine all the ingredients (except the flour, cracked nuts and berries, and melted butter) in a large mixing bowl, or the bowl of a large stand mixer. Please be careful not to burn out your mixer! The original recipe was written for use in a Bosch mixer which is a huge mixer. If you think you might have a problem, use your mixer to start the dough but finish it by hand.

4. Once you have everything in the bowl of whatever you are using, start it on the slowest speed and slowly start adding the flours. Put in just enough flour for the dough to start pulling away from the sides of the bowl, then once it is just combined, turn the mixer off and allow the dough to rest about 10 minutes. This will help the flour to absorb all the liquid.

5. After it has rested, turn the mixer back on to a medium speed and knead for 8 minutes.

6. Just before the kneading is done, add the cracked nuts and seeds and knead until combined.

7. Brush butter on the bottom and sides of 3 loaf pans, then butter your hands and divide the dough between the pans.

8. Cover and allow to rise until doubled, about 20 minutes (longer if you’re at sea level; I am at just about 7100ft). I like to just let them rise while my ovens heats, so set your oven to 350ºF.

9. Bake until brown on top and the loaf sounds hollow when you thump on it with your finger, about 30-35 minutes.

10. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pans about 10 minutes. Then take them out of the pans and cool on wire racks. Bread is much better if you allow it to cool all the way before you slice into it but sometimes, you just can’t wait!