So, I’m guessing there could be worse things do be addicted to, right?

While I’m preparing to admit that I am a marmalade junky, I find this breakfast muesli bread. I’ve suddenly become like a child who only singly eats mac and cheese or pb&j for weeks straight.

Breakfasts, lunches, midnight snacks are spent longing for the next time I can glob juliennes of sticky zest over my raisin stuffed sunflower bread.

As I’m leaving my local unnamed bigbox store with the oversized package of my next fix and realizing I have issues, I decided to stick to my personal claim of not buying what I can quite easily make on my own. I just couldn’t rightfully keep forking out five bucks for a bag of bread.

A little while back, with a few leftover minneolos, a cup of o.j, water and sugar, I had the marmalade covered. So now, it was on to the bread. The store bought, of course, had it’s yummy je ne sais quoi mixed in, so I was left to pick out my favourites, the first of those, being sunflower seeds. The next to impossible task was finding any that weren’t hulled, apparently they are only good for spitting but after an exhaustive search, I found some. They were salted, but beggers can’t be choosers, right? I figured I’d either rinse them or omit the extra salt.
Thanks to my son, I always have raisins, and we’re talking the big fat ones too. He just won’t accept those puny shriveled ones. – Left from the last trip to the health food store, was his half eaten bag of plump organic jumbo flames. They’re about the size of his knuckle, so I was headed for a good start. I had an apple, cinnamon oatmeal and flax, all the good müesli things.

The bread recipe is pretty basic. Taking the knowledge from Mark Bittman and his book How to Cook Everything, I keep my whole wheat bread ratios to 3:1 all purpose flour to whole wheat; doing this keeps a good crust. And that’s just what it needed to keep all the good stuff in and my globs of marmalade on safely top.

MÜESLI BREAD

1/3 Cup Flax Seeds
1/2 Cup Sunflower Seeds
1 Cup Organic Jumbo Flame Raisins
1/3 Cup Steel Cut Oats (precooked), or add 1/3 Old Fashioned Oats, uncooked
3 Cups Water (divided)
4 Cups All Purpose Flour (divided)
1 1/2 teaspoons Yeast (divided)
2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
1/3 Cup Maple Syrup
1/4 Cup Safflower Oil
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 Granny Smith Apple, peeled & finely diced

Cook the steel cut oats as to the package directions, set aside.
Cover the flax, sunflower seeds, raisins and oats with 1 1/2 cups of warm water. Stir to combine and leave 1 hour or up to overnight.
In another bowl, combine 2 cups of the all purpose flour with 1/2 teaspoon of the yeast along with the remaining 1 1/2 cups of warm water. Stir well to combine and leave the sponge to prove 1 hour or refrigerated overnight.
Combine the seed mixture along with the sponge.
Add the remaining 1 teaspoon of yeast granules, maple syrup, oil, salt and cinnamon.
Once well mixed, add the remaining all purpose and whole wheat flours, in stages.
Knead for 5 – 7 minutes or until the dough is springy, soft and elastic.
Transfer the dough to a clean, slightly oiled bowl. Let the dough rest and rise for about 30 minutes.
Divide the dough into two pieces. Shape into two traditional or rustic loaves, placing into two slightly greased loaf pans or onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
Allow the dough about another hour to rise.
Preheat the oven to 425ºF.
Place a pan of hot water on the lowest rack of the oven along with the loaves on the center rack.
Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 400ºF, remove the pan of water and continue to bake for an additional 20 – 25 minutes, until the loaves are golden and hollow sounding when tapped from underneath.

It’s a little more last minute than I wanted to post but after a Christmas Eve car crash delay (we’re ok), I’m back to wish all of you a wonderful Holiday and a very Merry Christmas.

Taking some of my two favourite Holiday ingredients I had on hand, I simmered up a pot of marmalade. For so long I always perceived jam and jelly making as being a day long mess but I’ve quickly come to realize that it’s really not that tough.

Sugar, temperature and flavour are just about the only things you need to remember.
Adding enough sugar to fruit and juice then boiling it to the 220ºF setting point is pretty much all you need to ensure a delicious gift.

If you couldn’t tell already, I absolutely love pomegranates. Come December, I typically buy out my local grocers stock and snack on half at a time instead of popcorn.
Combined with a zesty, sweet red grapefruit, I made a marmalade I’m sure any Scottish Gran would love.

Wishing you all a very merry and safe Holiday, I hope you enjoy your families… and your feasts.

GRAPEFRUIT POMEGRANATE MARMALADE

2 Ruby Red Grapefruits, zested and juiced
3 Cups Pomegranate Juice
7 1/2 Cups Sugar
8 Cups water
1 Box Certo Pectin Crystals

Zest the grapefruit and reserve.
Halve and juice the grapefruits.
Quarter the grapefruit rinds and add to a large stockpot along with the grapefruit juice and water.
Boil over a medium high heat for 45 minutes or until reduced by 1/3.
Squeeze and remove the rinds.
Add the sugar, pectin, pomegranate juice and reserved zest.
Raise the heat and using a candy thermometer boil the marmalade without stirring until the setting point of 220ºF has been reached; gently skimming any froth.
Meanwhile sterilize jelly jars and lids in boiling water. Drain on a clean dishtowel.
Fill the jars, clean the rims and fit with the lids. Allow them to cool to set and seal.

Yields 7 cups.