Whole Wheat No-Knead Bread with Flax Seeds and Oats

What do you do when you’re snowed in for four days? Bake! I’ve been baking and cooking a lot over the past few days, and my first project was this bread.

Whole Wheat No-Knead Bread with Flax Seeds and Oats

recipe from kiss my spatula

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup Irish (steel cut) oats

4 tablespoons flax seeds

2 1/4 cups bread flour

3/4 tablespoon kosher salt

1 1/3 cup warm water

1 tablespoon white distilled vinegar

1/4 teaspoon instant (rapid rise) yeast

Whisk the flour, steel cut oats, flax seeds, yeast, and salt together in large bowl.

Add the water and vinegar, and mix until a shaggy, sticky ball forms.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature for at least 12 hours, preferably 18 hours.

When you’re ready to use the dough, lay a sheet of parchment paper inside a 9 or 10 inch skillet, and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead about 10 to 15 times.

Shape the dough into a ball, and transfer to the skillet, seam-side down.

Spray the surface of the dough with non-stick cooking spray, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and let rise until it has about doubled in size, about 2 hours. I let mine rise for longer, maybe 3 to 4 hours, because we went out to shovel the cars and I forgot about it.

Here’s what it looked like when we came back inside.

About 30 minutes before baking, adjust your oven rack to lowest position, and place a 6-8 quart heavy-bottomed Dutch oven (with lid) on rack, and heat the oven to 475 degrees. I had to take the knob off the lid of mine, since it is not heat-proof up to 475 degrees.

Right before baking, lightly flour the top of the dough and make one 6-inch-long, 1/2 inch-deep slit along top of dough with a sharp knife.

Carefully remove pot from oven and remove the lid. Pick up the dough by lifting the parchment overhang, and lower into pot (let any excess parchment hang over pot edge).

Cover pot and place in oven. Reduce oven temperature to 425 degrees and bake covered for 30 minutes.  Remove the lid, and continue to bake until loaf is deep brown and instant-read thermometer inserted into center registers 210 degrees, about 20 to 30 minutes longer. Carefully remove bread from pot; transfer to wire rack and cool to room temperature before slicing.

This bread is really hearty, and was super easy to make. Flax seeds are supposed to be good for you, for a variety of reasons, so I figured this would be a good bread to have in my repertoire. I’ll definitely make it again 🙂