I made this bread using amaranth for the first time and it came out wonderfully! It has a bit of an “earthy” taste of “good old days”, but at the same time sophisticated enough to be served with French cheese and red wine. The crumb is soft and moist with tiny seeds. We had it after lunch with my vanilla rum plum jam and it was a perfect combination.
It would be difficult to find a bread more nourishing or flavorsome that this one.
Why use amaranth?
First is the amino acid lysine. Most cereal grains, like wheat, are relatively low in this amino acid. Alternatively, amaranth is relatively rich in this amino acid, containing approximately twice as much lysine as wheat on an ounce-for-ounce basis.
Next, are the minerals calcium, iron, and magnesium. In this mineral area, amaranth is much more like Swiss chard than wheat. It contains about four times as much calcium as wheat and twice as much iron and magnesium.
Whole Grain Amaranth (a-mah-ran-th) is an ancient “grain”. And being thousands of years old doesn’t keep this “grain” from combining with other ingredients to create delicious flavorful bread.
Amaranth-Honey Bread
(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...Ingredients
- 1 cup amaranth seeds (whole grain amaranth)
- 1 1/2 cups water
- pinch of salt
- 2 tsp dry yeast
- 1 Tbsp. honey
- 1/3 cup water
- 4 cups whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup amaranth flour
- 2 tsp. salt
- 1 1/4 cup of milk2 tbsp. soft butter
Instructions
In a medium saucepan mix together amaranth seeds, salt, and water. Bring it to boil, and cook for about 10 minutes on low heat. Turn off the heat and let the mixture soak on the switched-off plate.
In a small bowl stir yeast and honey into the water and put it aside for 15 minutes.
Mix the flours and salt in a bowl, made a mold and pour the yeast mixture in. Stir the flours and yeast together. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and let the dough rest for 15 minutes.
Stir milk, butter into cooked amaranth and add it to the dough. using an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook knead the dough for about 5 minutes. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and let the dough rest until doubled in volume.
Preheat the oven to 475°F.
In a lightly floured surface form the dough to a ball, then put it on a baking sheet. Let it rest for 10 minutes. For the decoration, you can insert a drinking glass in the middle of the ball, cut the loaf with a very sharp knife radial 8 times, remove the glass.
Put the baking sheet on the middle rack in the oven, bake 10 minutes at 475°F, and then 35 minutes more at 375°F
21 Comments
Rosa's Yummy Yums
September 11, 2013 at 2:24 pmA splendid loaf of bread! I bet it is very flavorful.
cheers,
Rosa
Sandra Mihic
September 11, 2013 at 5:05 pmDelicious looking bread and so pretty. Thank you for sharing Yelena, and have a fab mid week!
Rebecca Subbiah
September 11, 2013 at 5:58 pmthis looks wonderful and fun to learn about a new grain
La Table De Nana
September 11, 2013 at 8:53 pmSo now amaranth seeds and flour are on my list:) Love the photos Yelena..
Lydia Schljachovskaja
September 12, 2013 at 4:43 amОчень красивый хлеб!
Medeja
September 12, 2013 at 1:30 pmI can almost smell that bread 🙂 both bread and jam sound amazing!
lizzy
September 12, 2013 at 3:09 pmWow it looks amazing! I love how you enjoyed it with cheese and wine! That is the way to eat homemade bread
🙂
making-today-beautiful.com
Merry Graham
September 13, 2013 at 5:22 amStunning beauty!
Kim Bee
September 30, 2013 at 1:09 amThis is simply stunning. I cannot get over how pretty this is.
libby zay
November 7, 2013 at 10:02 pmThis bread looks delicious and your pictures are fantastic. I wanted to let you know I featured this in a blog post about amaranth: http://thescoutproject.org/edible-plants-a-to-z-amaranth/
Terra Loving
July 15, 2014 at 10:12 pmLenchik, thanks for an idea of using amaranth in the bread. I make sourdough bread very regularly and now I will add to it amaranth. I love amaranth, when it cooked, it reminds me fried fish caviar (fish eggs) from my happy child memories.
Hatice Toprak
January 18, 2015 at 4:27 amit looks lovely and I would love to try it bu I cant use yeast in my diet. can i use baking soda in this recipe you think ?
Doc30
September 11, 2015 at 9:56 pmDo you think you could skip the whole wheat and just use all amaranth?
melangery
September 11, 2015 at 11:05 pmHonestly, I don't know. I have a little experience with amaranth flour. I would say you need whole wheat or other flour, like oat flour for example. Try and let me know-))
Ciara
November 28, 2015 at 5:04 amThis bread turns out delicious, though I have a question. I made this about 2 weeks ago and it turned out more or less perfect (any flaws were due to my not having the correct ingredients). I have just made it again, and I realised it didn't rise at all! I didn't have honey, so I used brown sugar instead, and this time, after letting the honey and yeast sit in the water, there were no bubbles. I just googled about sugar and yeast and google tells me yeast should never come in direct contact with sugar, but it can come into direct contact with honey? I'm confused!
Amy
September 22, 2020 at 2:18 amI’m also confused that Google would said yeast shouldn’t come in contact with sugar. Sugar helps yeast to bloom, but salt can kill yeast when in direct contact.
Yelena Strokin
September 22, 2020 at 2:28 amyes, sugar helps the yeast to bloom, but salt to the opposite!
Kenzie
February 4, 2016 at 11:31 pmI made this bread today and definitely plan to make it again and again. I didn't have amaranth seeds (only the flour) so I used Chia seeds instead. It soaked up the water faster so I added a little bit extra and didn't leave it on the heat as long. The dough took a long time to rise so I just let it sit over night (about 12-13 hrs) and baked it the next day. Its really dense and soft on the inside, but crispy on the outside. Love it. Thanks for the recipe!
melangery
February 7, 2016 at 12:19 amYou are very welcome, Kenzie!
Robin
January 24, 2023 at 9:10 pmWould this be ok as-is but without the amaranth seeds?
Yelena Strokin
January 25, 2023 at 10:26 pmyes, you can bake without amaranth seeds