I love baking bread, it’s one of my favourite things to do. I wasn’t sure how to name this recipe, in the end I’ve went with Asian Spiced Bread. It’s an appropriate name as most of the spices are Asian. The flavour from the spices is lovely. My husband loved it too even though he is not keen on fennel seeds. I made this type of bread many times and I think it’s great for a celebration too, it’s something different and special.

As for most of the breads I’m baking, I’ve used a mix of white and wholemeal flour. I baked the bread on the pizza stone. I like it like this, it has more crust. To make the dough I’ve used my stand mixer. Buying it made baking bread so much easier, it’s really great. I also use it for batter and other things, so it’s very good to have it. The bread can be made by hand, but it takes a bit longer, as the dough has to be knead for 10 minutes.

Ingredients for a loaf of Asian Spiced Bread:

– 300g strong white flour
– 200g strong wholemeal flour
– 320ml water
– 8g Easy-Bake yeast
– 1 tsp sugar
– 1/2 tsp Vitamin C
– sea salt
– 2 spoons of sunflower seeds
– fennel seeds
– cumin
– chilli
– Nigella seeds
– Sesame seeds

Start by measuring the flour in a large bowl. Put the salt and the vitamin C in a small well on the side of the bowl, so they don’t touch the yeast. Make another well in the middle for the yeast. Put the sugar on top of the yeast and pour the lukewarm water. Mix on low speed for a few seconds, then turn up the speed and knead for 6 – 7 minutes. Put the dough in a greased bowl and cover it with cling film. If you want, you can wrap the bowl in a thick tea towel. Leave it to rise for 30 minutes. If it’s warm, the dough will rise faster.

Preheat the oven at 200C or 180C fan. Put the pizza stone in the oven from the begining, this way it will get hot. Flour a wooden chop-board and tip the dough on top. Cover it with the tea towel until the oven is ready.

Sprinkle more flour on top of the bread. Place it on the hot pizza stone, in the oven and bake it for around 30 minutes. If you don’t use a fan oven, remember to rotate it in the oven, so it bakes evenly. Using a wooden skewer, you can test if the bead is baked.

Take it out of the oven and leave it to cool for a few minutes. Leave it to cool for 5-10 minutes on a cooling rack, after that the bread is ready to be enjoyed.

Do you bake bread? What do you think of my Asian spiced bread? Would you like to try this recipe?