Beetroot and walnuts bread Recipe: Yes, I can Bake!

My story with baking started as an escape from my long tiring full-time job; I used to come home late at night feeling stressed and overwhelmed. I tried meditation and listening to calming music, nothing worked at first with me, as my head would wander and start making to-do lists, shopping lists, even meeting appointments and drama work stuff. Baking on the opposite grounded my mindset; I was able to switch off, focus on the recipe, finding a calming rhythm while measuring, mixing, kneading. What is better, it was rewarding. You end up with great baked bread, dinner, or even sweets.

This Beetroot bread is an exercise of mindful eating that I wanted to experiment with: making nutritious food that rewards your body while still called Carbs! If you are recovering from the diet drama like me, you will understand how enjoying carbs was taboo in the diet communities.

Feel free to scroll down to the recipe ingredients, or keep reading for very interesting facts.

Beetroot and Walnuts Benefits

Beetroot or beets as commonly known, are famous for their fancy color, but there is more to that, count with me: it is Low in calories, loaded with vitamins and nutrients. Beets contain nitrates which make our heart happy and blood pressure in control. Needless to say, that is filled with dietary fibers that benefit our digestion and consequently other body organs.

Walnuts are a great source of healthy fats, perfect nutrition for our brain, skin, heart. Although they are high in calories, I used a small amount in this recipe.

Home-baked vs. Store-bought

I cannot argue enough how homemade is always the best choice for very obvious reasons. First, you know what you put in your cooking or baking. Second, you select good materials and reputable brands and know very well what is going in your body.

Store-bought is convenient, I agree, and there are excellent brands that sell high-quality products. So if you have time to invest, I suggest you go for homemade, whether bakes or others. It is cost-effective as well, especially when you have a family to feed.

Always go simple; a little water, flour, and yeast can do wonders; it does not have to be a perfect sourdough or a fancy recipe; go basic and wholemeal flour when you can. I like to try different types of flour such as cornmeal, oat, rye, almond, coconut. It is incredible how recipes turn with a change of flour type.

Hand Kneading vs. Bread Maker

Again no need to invest when you do homemade; hand kneading goes very well; I purchased a bread maker almost eight years ago and have been using it but not in all my recipes. To have a nice good hand knead, you need around fifteen minutes at every round; what a physical exercise, huh? It is good to experiment here. I like the bread maker to mix the dough and let it rise, but I prefer to use a regular oven. When I use the bread maker to bake, the bread ends up a bit dense due to size restrictions. As for taste-wise, both are perfectly fine, and again it goes back to the time factor. If you have enough to invest, go ahead. If not, any alternative will help.

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Ingredients & Steps

This recipe is enough to make a medium-size loaf, around 750 g. As I used a bread maker, its instructions call to start with liquids, then flour, then yeast. Please follow your bread maker instruction; if you are planning to make it by hand, I will list the sequence in a bit:

• Water ¾ cup
• Grated raw beetroot 1 ¾ cups (around 250 g)
• Wholemeal flour 4 ½ cups (around 500 g)
• Butter 2 tablespoons
• Salt 2 teaspoons
• Sugar 1 teaspoon
• Dried yeast 2 teaspoons
• Walnuts 2 tablespoons

For a bread maker, put the item in the above sequence and select the wholemeal program and select the medium size button for hand kneading

1. Mix yeast, sugar, and water together.
2. In a bowl, start with the shredded beetroot, then add the butter at room temperature and mix
3. Add the water mix
4. Add the flour gradually and steer with a spatula until the mix is almost ready and a bit sticky
5. Transfer to a dry clean surface and start kneading while adding the rest of the flour little by little, until the dough forms well and nothing sticks on your hand.
6. Add the walnuts and give another knead, set aside for an hour and a half, covered in a kitchen towel
7. Transfer to your baking pan covered with parchment paper, and bake at 180 degrees for 45 minutes.
8. Let rest before cutting

This bread is very tasty by its own and toasted, i forgot to mention how its color is beautiful as well !!

Hope you like this recipe, if you do, do not forget to press like and share

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