Raw Bread

Can you imagine eating raw bread that actually has a traditional, bread-like texture? It seems unlikely, but it can be done if you have a dehydrator to air dry the loaves rather than bake them. We love presenting this bread to our guests, many of whom are convinced we must have baked it! Here’s how we do it:

Raw Bread sliced and ready to serve

Ingredients:

Ingredients are approximate and can be easily adjusted according to taste and required texture.

2 small carrots or 1 large one

1 medium courgette

a couple of dates

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 heaped tsp tahini (we use raw tahini)

splash of apple cider vinegar

1 C ground flax seed

½ C flour (we used coconut)

½ - 1 C psyllium husks

salt

Water (as needed)

Loaves shaped and ready for the dehydrator

Method:

- Blend the 'wet' ingredients with about a cup of water, along with the garlic and onion powders.

- Transfer the mixture to a bowl and stir in flax seed, flour and psyllium, leaving it a few minutes to take up the water and thicken. If the mixture is still too wet, add more of the dry ingredients, or if it’s too dry, add more water until it's dough-like.

- The dough should be fairly easy to handle and can be shaped into about three mini loaves (they look like large bread rolls). Try and ensure there are no gaps in the loaves and place them on a dehydrator tray directly onto the mesh.

- Sprinkle sesame seeds on the tops of the mini loaves and place the tray back in the dehydrator.

- Dehydrate overnight or for about 10 - 15 hours at 46 - 48°C. The outer part of the loaves should be crispy while the inside is soft.

A peek inside our 9 shelf dehydrator - useful for more than just bread!

Final Comments …

The bread is particularly good served warm, but equally can be eaten cold.

We know that raw tahini is not as widely available as regular roasted tahini (we use it in some of our recipes because of its roasted taste), but we haven’t tried it in this recipe, so can’t recommend it however, it may work perfectly well.

We use coconut flour in the recipe but other flours would surely work just as well eg. quinoa flour, almond flour.

The inspiration for this recipe comes from various sources but chiefly from Raw Chef, Russell James.

And the very final comment: it’s really hard to get this wrong if a) you’re happy with the taste of the mixture and b) the dough is right, ie not too wet.

If you want to make a gluten-free bread but don’t have a dehydrator, have a look at this video in which Graham demonstrates how to make an oven baked seed loaf.