Ashland Bread from the Puget Sound

My gorgeous cousin, Sandra has a food blog called Section 89, that I frequent and on it was this recipe for Ashland Bread. Since any kind of bread is the food I would choose if stranded on an island, I decided to whip up a batch and let me tell you....this is now deemed my Lucky Charms bread because to me it is magically delicious!! Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Hearty, easy, just plan awesome for you and extremely inexpensive, you will be whipping out loaves for the freezer all afternoon. Truth be told, it really only has one perfect moment in time and that is right out of the oven smothered with salty butter.

This "wonder" bread comes to you from the cookbook, With Love and Butter from Holly B's bakery floating on Lopez Island in the Puget Sound. Buy your wheat bran, germs, and seeds in the bulk sections at Winco and this bread is cheaper than store bought and a whole lot better!

I have included parentheses after some of the ingredients to show you how cheap this recipe is.

Ashland Bread
adapted from With Love and Butter
A yeasted batter bread, Ashland Bread receives only one, brief rising and is extremely easy. Yields 2 medium loaves

6 tablespoons raw sunflower seeds (I used flax seeds from Winco at .49/lb…I bought 3 cups of this and it cost me 42 cents total)
3 cups warm water
3/8 cup honey (1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons)
3 tablespoons quick-rise yeast (or 3 packets/1 strip)
4 cups whole wheat flour (I have a wheat grinder so you are welcome to come and grind if you have bulk wheat)
1 cup wheat bran (.38/lb at Winco…I bought about 4 cups of this and it cost me 15 cents total)
1 cup wheat germ (.39/lb at Winco…I bought 3 cups of this and it cost me 30 cents total)
4 tablespoons brown sesame seeds (I used regular sesame seeds…can buy in bulk)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Generously grease two 4 x 8-inch loaf pans and sprinkle one tablespoon sunflower seeds in each.

Place the remaining 4 tablespoons sunflower seeds and the rest of the ingredients in a mixer bowl and blend with the dough hook at medium speed for 8 minutes. Divide the batter between the 2 pans. This dough is very sticky so don’t be alarmed. Just plop it in there, it bakes up all rustic and pretty. Loosely drape with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place just until the batter reaches the top edge of the pans. This will take only 10 to 14 minutes if you're using fine-grained whole wheat flour and 20 to 30 minutes with a coarser grind. When you set the loaves to rise, preheat the oven to 400 degree F with the rack in the center position.

Remove the plastic wrap and bake the bread for 15 minutes, rotate the pans, and bake another 10-15 minutes. The bread will be firm to the touch and molasses-colored, but won't rise much above the rim of the pan (don't look for a rounded top). Remove from the pans and cool on a rack but you must eat half of one all by yourself before it cools. Enjoy with butter or cheese.