Sunflowers, Wild Yeasts, and Red Turkey Wheat Flour

Bread baking is said to be a winter activity, but actually, you may find that loaves turn out better in warmer weather.

I once had a fellow bread-baking buddy who swore by baking bread in summer and early autumn. I wasn’t convinced, but he’d wave his hand at me as if something smelled bad when I said I loved eating warm bread in winter.

“No, no, no, you have to make bread when the air is full of wild yeasts,” he’d say, and his eyes would bug out in manic glee. “They’re all dead in the middle of winter. Summer breads have so much more bounce!”

I think he was right. Every bread I’ve ever baked in the summertime naturally had more lift and, yes, even tasted better. Grainier and more flavorful.

For P6 Month, give this recipe a try, bakers of bread. It was written to maximize P6 ingredients, like Sunrise Flour Mill’s Turkey Red Heritage Wheat flour (in the Bulk department). This is a real treat for bread bakers, a chance to knead dough like the German-Russian immigrants from the Ukraine who brought Turkey Red wheat seeds to Kansas more than 200 years ago. Turkey Red is very different from our modern, industrialized wheat strains. It has a deeper root system for pulling in more nutrients to this taller wheat plant. I think you’ll taste the difference immediately.

This recipe also includes Driftless Organics’ Sunflower Oil, available in both the Bulk and Grocery aisles. This is an underrated, healthful, local oil, cold-pressed (which preserved nutritional integrity), unrefined, and adds a delicious nuttiness, which complements the Turkey Red flour (and wild yeasts) perfectly.

So not only is this a terrific loaf of bread, it’s also the perfect way to celebrate those farmers and producers who share your version of a smaller, more localized, and cooperative food system.

Summer Red Turkey Bread

“Starter”
2 tsp. instant yeast
2 Tbsp. Ames Farm honey (bulk)
¾ cup water

Wet Ingredients
1 cup lukewarm water
I egg, whisked
1 Tbsp. organic orange juice
2 Tbsp. Driftless Organics Sunflower Oil

Dry Ingredients
1 ½ tsp. salt
6 cups Sunrise Mills Red Turkey Whole Wheat Flour

Mixing

Mix the “starter.” This isn’t starter, as in, sourdough starter. It’s just how you’ll get the dried yeast started (i.e., activated). Make sure the water is warm but not hot to the touch or you’ll kill the yeast. The yeast is activated after it begins eating the sugars in the honey and, when fully activated, forms a nice, foamy head atop the water.

While the yeast is getting ready, add the salt to the flour and sift thoroughly in a large mixing bowl. Form a well in the middle of the flour.

Once yeast is fully activated, pour starter into wet ingredients and give it one or two gentle stirs, then pour that mixture into the well. Slowly stir flour into the wet mixture until it starts to turn stiff and sticky. (Add flour if too sticky or water if it’s dry and stiff.) Turn out dough onto a floured tabletop and knead steadily for 15 minutes.

Let the dough rise for two hours at room temperature. It should roughly double in size. Turn out and beat out all the gas bubbles. Let rise for another hour then turn it out again.

Shaping and Baking

Butter or oil an 8.5″ x 4.5″ bread pan or form into two rounds. To properly shape the loaves for sandwiches, stretch, fold, and other wise tuck the dough into an oblong, slightly football-shaped “loaf” that’s narrow enough to fit into your loaf pan. Form loaves with the crease on the underside of the dough (very important).

Let loaves rise for 30 more minutes.

Preheat oven to 350° F. Bake 45–55 minutes (longer if the loaves were wetter, a bit shorter if drier).

* Photo by Karl Gerstenberger