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Whole Wheat Sunflower Seed Bread

October 20, 2010 * by joythebaker * 108 Comments

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I realize that I haven’t been the most reasonable person lately.

I’ve been tempting you with Doughnut Muffins topped with glossy chocolate glaze.

Those Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts were pretty absurd, right?

And Buttermilk Onion Rings?  Come on… it’s just too much.

Maybe I’m trying to make up for something.  Maybe what I don’t want to tell you about it the array of stoooopid movies in my Netflix queue. Maybe I want to distract you from the ridiculous amount of money I paid for a sweater at The Gap, of all places.  Geez… Gap… like it’s the 90’s again.   (I obviously used to shop at The Gap a lot in the 90’s… whatever.)

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The point is, I busted out the whole wheat flour today… as a sort of apology.

Moreover… if you can count the number of sunflower seeds in this picture I’ll give you two thousand dollars.

Not true.  But I did just say ‘moreover’…. that was mildly entertaining… to me at least.

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I’m fond of this quick bread recipe.

Sunflower seeds are roasted and salted and folded into a simple whole wheat and buttermilk batter.

The bread is pretty dense, but not dry.  Let’s call it… hearty.  It’s not too sweet and has just a touch of salt and crunch.

I like it best served slightly warm with a bit of butter and honey.  Yes… I just added more fat and sugar to my healthy bread.  I can’t really help myself.

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Whole Wheat Sunflower Seed Bread

adapted from Tate’s Bake Shop Cookbook

makes two 9x4x3-inch loaves

Print this Recipe!

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup honey

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 cup roasted and salted sunflower seeds

*If you have raw sunflower seeds, toss them with 1 teaspoon olive oil and one scant teaspoon salt and bake on a cookie sheet for 12 minutes (or until slightly browned) in a 350 degree F oven. Let cool before incorporating into the bread batter.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray two 9x4x3-inch bread pans with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flours, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda.

In a medium bowl, whisk together honey, eggs, buttermilk and melted butter.

Add the wet ingredients all at once to the dry ingredients.  Fold to incorporate.  Try not to overmix the batter.  Once the flour has almost disappeared fold in the 3/4 cup of the sunflower seeds (reserving some seeds to garnish the top).  Fold until no flour bits remain.

Divide batter between the two pans.  This will create smaller loaves… not huge loaves… just so you know.  Bake for 35-40 minutes, being sure not to over-bake and dry out the bread.

Remove from oven and let rest in the pans for 10 minutes.  Invert onto cooling racks.  Serve warm or wrap tightly and freeze.  Awesome.