These little bricks stuffed with rolled grains and seeds and leavened with lievito madre make super yummy sandwiches. I only call them bricks because of their shape. Their texture is anything but.

I found these cute little bread pans a while ago. They’re 16.5 x 10cm and 8.5 cm high. They’re perfect for the single household, for baking gifts, and most importantly: test baking new recipes. The finished loaves weigh usually about a pound. These two are a bit heavier with 550g each, but they’re stuffed with all kinds of good things.

For the soaker:

• 100g mix of seeds and steelrolled grains
• 100g hot buttermilk
• 15g salt

Roast the seeds and rolled grains in a dry pan until they start to smell toasty. Empty the contents of the pan into a bowl, add the salt and cover witht he hot buttermilk. Stir, cover and let it soak at room temperature for 2-4 hours. Don’t worry about spoilage, the salt keeps things under control.

For the dough:

• 110g lievito madre
• 300g buttermilk
• 50g water
• 100g all purpose emmer
• 350g bread flour

Mix and knead until windowpane test is successful, then add the soaker and mix it in. Place your dough in an oiled bowl and let it rest for 2 hours at room temperature. In that time, give it a round of stretches and folds every 20-30 minutes. The dough is very sticky in the beginning but will improve with every round.

Divide the dough equally, shape two loaves and place them in two greased baking pans. I treated mine with my homemade pan grease. Cover the pans and leave them on the counter for an hour before you put them in the fridge for 24 hours.

The loaves should have visibly risen when you take them out. If not, give them more time, no matter if it’s in a warm place or a while longer in the fridge.

Once they’re ready, pre-heat the oven to 250°C. I like to place the pans on my baking steel, so they get proper bottom heat. You can also heat up a pizza stone to place the pans on once it’s hot.

Turn the oven down to 210°C and bake with steam for about 30 minutes in the pan, and 10 minutes without to brown the sides. Core temp was 95°C when I pulled them out of the oven.

Place your fresh bread on a wire rack to cool and wait at least an hour before you cut into it. You can of course cut and eat it still warm if you like, but then make sure the whole bread gets eaten. Otherwise you end up with very weirdly textured leftovers.

Enjoy 🙂