There is nothing that reminds me of home quite like fresh bread.
My grandmothers bread was the stuff of legends. I’m not sure if the slices were really as huge as I remember, but I just loved having a piece so thick it could barley pass as a slice topped with a liberal spread of half melted peanut butter. We grand kids didn’t look forward to being spoiled with money or toys, our grandmother doted on us by bringing us a loaf and the best part is there was nothing that we could have wanted more.
I have a large family, so my Grandmother made so many loaves at a time no bowl could possibly be big enough so she used a huge laundry basket. My aunt followed in her footsteps, and so I also have early memories of her long counter in the old house being overflowing with rising loaves of bread, she covered them all in a long damp tablecloth with some poppy blue 70’s print which I wish I had to use for many reasons. The smell of the bread rising in the kitchen is palpable, I can almost taste it, the memory seems so old that it’s fused the touch softness of the dough, the smell, and the taste all together. And now that I have remembered this the memory with be forever changed, reality is just like dreams in a lot of ways. but then I digress…
When I was a kid I abhorred walnuts, there was no way I was going to go near those things. I thought of them only as the spoiler of brownies; bitter, unpleasantly crunchy and infuriatingly inseparable from the delicious prize. Even chocolate couldn’t tempt me to eat something ruined by walnuts, I considered it an exercise in futility. So I guess I just assumed I still wouldn’t like them,
until one fateful green bean salad (topped with chopped walnuts) gave me a taste for them and now I am putting them in everything. My mother must have noticed since she gave me a lovely bottle of walnut oil for christmas. It’s wonderful in salads, but since I love to bake and I had been thinking about trying some new oils in bread, this is the first thing I made with walnut oil. The oil is light and lovely, in colour and in feel I find, with a delicate walnut fragrance and taste. I was so pleased with this delicately fragrant bread, it turned out to be a real winner. We ate it with strawberry jam, for a little taste summers past and summers yet to come. Preserves really warm your heart in the dark months. If you’re feeling the winter blues you might want to give this bread and a bottle of good local jam a try, also super delicious with butter and honey. If you don’t have walnut oil you can substitute any other oil you have handy (extra virgin olive oil, grape seed oil, etc) and it shouldn’t affect the texture very much, but the bread will be quite different in flavour depending on what you use, of course. Walnut oil is definitely a treat. Mmmmmm.
Walnut Scented Homemade Bread
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp sea salt
3 tbsp walnut oil
1 tbsp butter (or vegan margarine, such as earthbalance)
1 1/4 cup warm water (should feel like a warm bath, not hot)
4 1/2 tsp yeast (quick/instant)
2 tbsp packed brown sugar
If you have a bread machine set it to knead the dough, put everything in and turn it on, pretty simple. Take it out when it has been kneaded for twenty minutes and place on a clean, lightly floured surface. Cut the dough into thirds with a sharp knife, form these into proper boules and place them into a loaf pan which has been butter and floured. Cover with a clean tea towel and set it aside to rise for about a half an hour; it should have doubled in size if not give it more time. Brush the top with a little melted butter and bake at 400f until it is nicely golden and the underside of the loaf sounds hollow when you tap it.
A quick tip: right before you put your loaf in the over use a mister bottle to give a quick furious spritz of water into the hot oven, the steam will make your bread crust pleasantly crisp.
