Home-baked bread speaks to us of the warmth of the hearth and home. It conjures up bustling kitchens, flour-dusted work counters, large bowls covered with dishtowels, ovens yearning for bread pans filled with plum, yielding dough. The baked bread, which permeates the house with its indescribable aroma, is beautifully browned, its crust crisp or softly elastic. There it sits, cooling on a wire rack, waiting for the time to be right to slice it and spread it with pale creamery butter and maybe a spoonful of the apple butter.

Rye Bread with Flax, Amaranth, Quinoa & Sesame Seeds
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
- 1 cup your favorite seeds (I used a combination of quinoa, amaranth seeds, sesame seeds, and flax seeds)
- 2 tsp (1 packet) active dry yeast
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups warm water (about 110 degrees F)
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting and shaping
- 1 1/4 cup rye flour (I used Bob's Red Mill - Organic Dark Rye Flour)
Instructions
Melt butter in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the seeds and cook 5 minutes, stirring often until toasted. Remove from heat and cool completely.
In a large bowl, sprinkle the yeast and sugar over warm water. Stir and set aside, for about 5 minutes.
Stir together yeast mixture, flours, toasted seeds, and salt. With a mixer on low speed, beat just until the dry ingredients are moistened. The dough will be a little sticky. Cover the bowl with a clean cloth. Let the dough rise in a warm place, away from drafts, until it is double in size, 1-2 hours.
Punch down the dough and cut it in half. Lightly dust a baking tray with flour and shape dough on a tray into round loaves. Cover the dough with a clean cloth and let it rise again until it is double in size, about 1 hour.
Heat the oven to 450F. Place a broiler pan on the bottom rack of the oven. Dust top of loaf with flour. Using a serrated knife, lightly score the top of bread three times. Place the baking tray in an oven. Pour 1 cup hot water into the broiler pan and quickly close the oven door.
Bake the bread 30 minutes, until it sounds hollow when tapped on a bottom. Remove it from the pan and cool on a wire rack.
Notes
Store bread in a cool, dry place, tightly wrapped in plastic wrap or enclosed in a plastic bag. Storing bread in a refrigerator will retard molding, but the bread will become stale. Tightly-wrapped bread will keep in the freezer up to three months.

8 Comments
Rosa's Yummy Yums
November 4, 2014 at 4:14 pmBeautiful loaves! So flavorful and healthy.
Cheers,
Rosa
Anonymous
November 4, 2014 at 5:29 pmThis bread would be perfect for dipping into wholesome and hearty soup, for drizzling with olive oil and rubbing with garlic and toasting to be topped with delicious toppings and for slathering with a rich spread and savoured. What a delicious share Yelena. Thank you for allowing us to share these wonderful recipes with us all and your photos take pride of place. They always make me want to lick the screen 😉
Catherine
November 4, 2014 at 9:09 pmWhat a delicious loaf of bread. Catherine
La Table De Nana
November 5, 2014 at 3:02 amI cannot wait to try this Yelena..
Medeja
November 5, 2014 at 8:31 amI could eat such lovely bread alone. 🙂
Angie Schneider
November 5, 2014 at 3:17 pmDense, chewy and good for you..this is exactly how I love my bread!
Cris Johnson
August 8, 2018 at 10:46 pmCan this be done in a bread maker?
Yelena Strokin
August 10, 2018 at 7:39 amNever made it in a breadmaker. Sorry.