Sunflower Seed Bread

I always love the smell of freshly baked bread and thought baking bread actually a tedious process and time consuming till i make one all by myself. The waiting hours for the dough to rise actually bothered me at first, not till i grabbed my novel only, to realize time flies fast. I enjoyed the whole process of bread making at the comfort of my little hut. While the girls are out for their curriculum classes on Saturday afternoon, i decided to surprise them with home baked bread. Recently, i bought one big packet of sunflower seeds mainly to munch at office but i decided to throw some into my bread making project.

The wonderful smell of yeast instantly surrounded my little kitchen while the bread happily baking in the oven. This is the smell that i adore during my childhood, when my dad brought me to the well known Ceylon bakery in KL and  i knew i have something really good baking in my very own oven. True enough, the result didn't let me down. The moment i took out the bread, i noticed the crusty top on the bread just like those loaves i have seen in the Ceylon bakery. I just can't wait to slice the bread to have a look at the interior. The inside of the bread proved to be fluffy with the right amount of air pockets created by the yeast. It's crusty on the outside, soft,fluffy and moist in the inside with added crunchiness of sunflower seeds and slightly sweetened with honey. This bread recreated my childhood memory and i'm in cloud nine.

Ingredients

3 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup sunflower/canola oil
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tsp granulated white sugar
1/3 cup honey
1 egg white,beaten
3/4 cup sunflower seeds
1 tsp salt


For Garnishing

1 egg white,beaten
1 tbsp sunflower seeds


Methods

Grease a 9' inch loaf pan and set aside.

In a pan, lightly toast the sunflower seeds in a medium fire for 2-3 minutes. Keep aside

In a large bowl, add yeast,warm water and sugar. Stir and keep aside until foamy.

In another large bowl, combine flour,salt,honey, toasted sunflower seeds and oil and mix well. Knead about 10 minutes adding additional flour if needed to form a elastic dough.

Place the dough in a greased large bowl, cover with damp kitchen towel and let the dough rise for about 1 to 1 1/2 hour in a warm place

Dust a clean working surface with flour, and punch down the dough and knead for 1 minute and shape into a loaf.

Place in a prepared loaf pan, cover with kitchen towel and let the dough rise in a warm place for 30 minutes

Heat oven to 375' F or 190' Cel, place the baking rack in the middle of the oven. Brush the top of dough with beaten egg white and sprinkle with sunflower seeds.

Bake for 35-40 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack to cool completely

Slice and serve with butter, honey or marmalade