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I learned this recipe from my mother who learned it from a friend, but when I e-mailed our lovely friend to ask if I could use her recipe, she told me it was actually from the Fanny Farmer Baking Book. Well I've never heard of this Fanny Farmer character, but now I am intrigued to find out what other deliciousness can be found in her recipe books!

Our family has adapted the method of making this bread a little over the years, so I'll include here the way we do it, as that is the way I am familiar with. Did I mention that there is virtually no kneading in this recipe? So it's fast and easy too. What more could you ask from a loaf of bread?

Whole Wheat Sesame Millet Bread
Adapted from the Fanny Farmer Baking Book

Makes two loaves

Ingredients
2 cups hot water
1/3 cup honey
1 tablespoon yeast
2 cups unbleached flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup millet
3 tablespoons roasted sesame seeds

Method To start, I add the honey to the hot water in a bowl, and then I stir to melt the honey. After that I add the yeast and let it do its thing.

While the yeast is growing I put my sesame seeds in a little fry pan over medium/low heat on the stove and toss them around until they're nice and brownish-golden. When these are done, I take them off the heat and let them cool down a bit.

Now I mix the flours, the salt, the millet, and the cooled sesame seeds. I just stir it all together with a wooden spoon, and then I pour in my yeast mixture which should be nice and big and frothy by now.

I Stir everything together until it it is almost too stiff to work with the spoon, and I then work it with my hands, just sort of kneading it in the bowl until all of the dry ingredients are well mixed in.

You should have a nice big lump of bread dough now. Split it in two and shape it into loaves on a greased cookie sheet. I let my loaves rest on the sheet for about half an hour, turning on my oven sometime during the resting period so it is heated to 400 degrees by the time the bread is ready to go in.

Bake for approximately 45 minutes, or until done.

Let cool on a baking rack until just warm and ready to eat!

Also, please note, the loaves shown in the pictures are from when I doubled the recipe, so each loaf is actually one whole recipe.

Thank you for sharing, Zoe! This recipe will definitely go into our to-make pile. We love those rustic, open-crumbed loaves, but we've been looking for a great sandwich bread too.

(Images: Zoe Hartley Carter)