Monica's Norwegian Bread

Monica's Norwegian Bread
I was visiting a friend of mine in Norway this year, and while I was there she made this bread.  We ate it many mornings we were there with all sorts of good things on top.  Now, in our house, it is called Monica's bread.  Monica's bread brings back the light filled days and nights of a summer in Norway.

This is a simple yeast bread to make and if you haven't liked baking bread or have not yet tried it, this is a nice one to start with as there is no kneading involved.  This is a more plain flavored bread, which means that it is wonderful to eat with other things piled high on it.  I just ate a piece of it with some freshly made ricotta cheese.  (You can read about homemade cheese on this page: http://invitedtodinner.blogspot.com/2012/02/making-homemade-cheese.html). Other things which I have recently piled on bread have been heirloom tomatoes (which have much better flavor than traditional ones) with a dash of feta cheese.

At any rate, while this bread must sit a while to rise, no kneading is required.  This recipe also makes three loaves, which you can eat up, give away or freeze, though it is always better eaten fresh.

Also, please note when making bread in particular it is best to have a scale to weigh the ingredients as it is a more precise way of baking and your results will be more similar, particularly if you grind your own grains.

Monica's Norwegian Bread
1 kg white flour
1 kg whole wheat flour
4 cups oatmeal
1 Tablespoons seeds (in this loaf I used sesame and sunflower as that is what I had on hand)
1 Tablespoon salt
7 grams dried yeast
2 liters room temperature water

Mix all the ingredients.  Leave the dough to sit at room temperature for at least 2 hours, though overnight is great too.   Pour the dough into three bread tins.  (I used parchment to be sure the bread would not stick, but there wasn't a problem getting it out of the tins.)  Put the loaves of bread into a cold oven.  Turn on the oven to 210F for 15 minutes.  After 15 minutes, turn the temperature up to 400F for 2 hours.

Makes 3 delicious loaves