Health Bread

Sponge
2 cups milk
1 ½ tablespoons dry yeast
1/3 cup honey
1 cup barley flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached bread flour

Scald the milk. Add the honey and let the mixture cool to 110 degrees F. Sprinkle the yeast on top and let it soften for a few minutes. Then stir in all three kinds of flour and either beat 100 strokes with a large spoon or use an electric mixer on medium speed for about a minute.

Let rise at 90 degrees until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.

Dough
To make the dough, add to the sponge:

1 cup cooked wheat berries
½ cup chopped toasted walnuts
½ cup roasted unsalted sunflower seeds (hulled)
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 teaspoons salt
About 1 cup whole wheat flour
About 1 cup unbleached bread flour
Additional melted butter (about 2 tablespoons) for brushing on loaf during baking (see note)

Knead, adding more flour as needed in about a 50/50 ratio of whole wheat and unbleached bread flour, until the dough is smooth and elastic. (The chunks of stuff won’t make for a smooth ball of dough, but the dough itself should be smooth.)

Let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Deflate and let rise until doubled again. Shape into a loaf (see notes) and let rise for 30 minutes.

Bake at 400 degrees F to an internal temperature of 200 degrees. (See notes)



Notes:

I baked this in a round cloche. With about an hour left to go on the rising, I preheated both pieces of the empty cloche in a 400-degree oven.

To shape the loaf before the last rising, I used baking parchment to line a bowl of approximately the same diameter as my cloche.

When the loaf had risen, I removed the dough and paper from the bowl and trimmed the paper close to the edge of the dough.

I removed the bottom section of the cloche from the oven. Using a large spatula, I transferred the uncooked loaf to the cloche. Then I removed the top of the cloche from the oven, covered the loaf with it, and returned the cloche to the oven. (To handle something this heavy and hot, two good oven mitts are recommended.)

I baked the loaf for 30 minutes covered, removed the cover, and brushed melted butter onto the crust.

I reduced the heat to 375 and baked to an internal temperature of 200 degrees, about another 20 minutes.