When you are on your bike, food=fuel. So, I thought that it’s not too out-of-bounds to pass along a few portable recipes, too…
3×5 Bread – a 100% whole wheat, no-knead, multi-purpose bread dough
I have been making and tweaking this bread recipe for years now. Although “no-knead” bread recipes have been everywhere recently, I was originally inspired by the book “No Need to Knead” by Suzanne Dunaway . This book includes several excellent recipes for focaccia, ciabatta and french loaves.
But, my goal was different. I wanted a bread with only four primal ingredients- 100% whole wheat flour, water, yeast and salt. It had to be easy to make. It had to be tasty. It had to be soft and moist.
And the recipe had to be easy to remember. It’s called ”3×5″ bread because you use 3 measures of water to 5 measures of whole wheat flour. A measure can be any amount you like. I use a 1/2 cup measure for one loaf, but the recipe can be easily scaled up or down using a different sized measure. So for a 1/2 cup measure…
- Put 3 measures of warm tap water in a mixing bowl. Sprinkle a teaspoon of yeast on top. Stir it in.
- Put 5 measures of whole wheat flour in the bowl. Sprinkle a teaspoon of salt on top. Stir it all up. The dough will go from liquid, to ragged, to a loose ball.
- With wet hands, shape the dough into a smoothish ball and set it back in the mixing bowl.
- Cover the bowl and keep it in the fridge overnight. Or longer, if you like. If you are in a rush, you can let it rise on the countertop for 4-6 hours.
- When you are ready to bake it, gently scoop the dough out of the bowl and shape it into a loaf. The dough will be really loose and sticky. You will probably want to handle it with wet hands.
- Place the dough on a baking sheet sprinkled with oatmeal or coarse cornmeal. Bake for one hour at 375 degrees. That’s it!
You can use it for sandwiches, but even better…
Cinnamon Rolls! Make one batch of dough as described above. After it rises, roll it out thinly on an oiled surface. Sprinkle it with cinnamon and sugar, but leave a 1-inch margin on the side. Roll it up using the margin to seal the roll. Cut it into rings with a serrated knife. Place them in a baking pan. Sprinkle with more sugar. Bake at 375 degrees for 1/2 hour.
