I found this recipe for 100% whole wheat bread and knew I had to try it out. I loved the addition of flax seeds, flax meal, rolled oats, sesame seeds, quinoa and sunflower seeds that were in the whole wheat flour base. The recipe also called for vital wheat gluten, something I’d never used before.
After doing some research here’s what I found. Vital wheat gluten helps improve the texture of breads. It turns out vital wheat gluten is pretty important in whole grain bread baking because it helps the yeast out with the rise. If you don’t add it your bread can turn out rock hard… I know that’s happened to me before.
This dough was super difficult to work with. I’m not sure if I’m sore from my workout yesterday or from kneading so much. I didn’t have high hopes for this bread as I was making it and waiting for the rise (which took at least twice as long as the recipe said).
It turned out to taste so good 
I made 1 loaf and 6 huge rolls.
The only modifications I made were to use black sesame seeds instead of white and olive oil instead of coconut oil.
Baking success.
After all my hard work I treated myself to an amazing lunch courtesy of Gena.
This big plate had kale massaged with a tahini dressing, carrots, red cabbage and avocado. It was everything I could have wanted + a piece of my fresh bread.
Lunch success.
Dinner was filled with simple Orange Basil Chicken Strips.
Ingredients:
1 lb chicken breasts, cut into strips
zest and juice of 1 orange
handful of fresh basil, chopped
1 tsp olive oil
pinch of sea salt and pepper
In a ziplock bag combine the chicken, zest, juice, basil, olive oil, salt and pepper. Marinate in the fridge for 4 hours, or overnight.
Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and place the chicken evenly on the sheet. Discard any extra liquid. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the internal termperture reaches 170 degrees.
We enjoyed our chicken with a salad, basil sweet potato fries and fresh bread.
Dinner success.
Questoin: What were your successes this weekend?
Nice! Lots of great cooking & baking. I love homemaking rolls/bread- so much better than store bought. The salad looks fantastic too. Successes this week- Mexican dinner Saturday night & Split Pea Soup
i LOVE basil and orange together!! those chicken strips sound like they were made for me!
My husband has been getting into bread making recently, but so far we’ve only used recipes without wheat gluten because we haven’t had a chance to go purchase any. He uses the recipes from the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (also Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day), which require no kneading!
The bread sounds great! Baking bread has been on my “must make” list for a long time now…
And the chicken sounds awesome!
Thanks for stopping by my blog! Yes, 40% protein is crazy for me, it would just never work, especially since I don’t eat a lot of meat.
Thanks for the bread recipe! Over the weekend I made another successful batch of granola. I was very happy with the turn out!
The orange basil marinade sounds so yum!
I have never made my own bread. It looks incredible. I definitely need to try it out!
Heather, the bread looks wonderful! I made farro for the first time as you know and that was a huge success!!!