Ask me the question: do you have a friend who smiles all the time, who is hard-working and always but positive? I DO, I DO, I DO! Anja!

 
I know Anja since I started school, it’s been 4 years now. We were in the same class. And I always liked her but did not know her much until last year – when my roommate Maisa left for first Kotka then Amsterdam, Anja sub rented her room. We shared the apartment from the beginning of June until Christmas (how original, a Turkish and a German together, hah!), and it was a great time together!

 

 
I spent part of that time as a horribly depressed woman, and Anja was just the opposite. I might have given a hard time as the miserable part of the apartment. But she never complained – at least to my face heh..

 

 
During our time together, we cooked, baked, ate together, she was my taster, my vegetable cutter, my healthy food adviser, my friend, my sister. I taught her the secret delights of Turkish cuisine, she inspired me to go and live in the countryside (she’s my Heidi), we tried together to decode the cryptical messages of men around – especially puzzling Finnish men! We even participated in Ravintolapäivä together in November – Ompelu Ravintola (check the related blog post: https://mydearkitcheninhelsinki.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/event-ravintolapaiva-16-11-ompelu-ravintola/).

 

 
And of course, as a German gal, when I asked her if she wanted to participate in co-baking session with me, she chose to bake bread! What I like about this bread, and about any other bread or similar things she baked or cooked while she was living with me is how practical and fast her recipes are.

 

 

So, if you want a really filling bread, rich in taste, bake this bread, put some butter on a slice when it is still warm, and think about me and Anja riding Anja’s horses towards the sunset in the middle of green Kißlegg im Allgäu.

 

Oh, how I miss her!

 

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Ingredients:
(makes 1 round bread)

 

250 gr. plain flour
250 gr. whole-wheat flour
1 tsp / 5 ml. salt
1 tsp / 5 ml. yeast
1/2 cup / 1.2 dl oats (in Finnish: Kuituinen Kaurahiutale)
1/2 cup / 1.2 dl sunflower seeds, plus a bit more for topping
300 ml. lukewarm water
2 carrots
1 tbsp / 15 ml olive oil, plus a bit more to brush the dough

 

Soundtrack: Bang Bang by Dalida (we were not listening to this song that day, but this song always reminds me of Anja as she listened to that often at home.)

 

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1. Take a big mixing bowl. Put dry ingredients: Plain flour, whole-wheat flour, salt, yeast, oats, sun-flower seeds. Mix.

 

 

 

 

 

 
2. Add water and mix, until all dry ingredients get wet.

 

 

 
3. Add olive oil and mix, until oil is incorporated.

 

 

 
4. Grate carrots.

 

 
5. Add carrots to the mixture and mix until carrots are evenly distributed within the mixture.

 

 

 

6. Start kneading in the bowl.

 

 
7. Continue kneading on the counter (flour the surface first), until you get a rather smooth nice dough.

 

 

 
8. Put the dough back in the bowl, brush the surface of the dough with olive oil. Cover it with a damp cloth, leave it in a warm place to proof, until it almost gets doubled in size.

 

 
9. When the dough gets big enough, put it on a floured surface and knead a bit more. Cover and leave for a second time to proof.

 

 

 
10. Preheat the oven to 230C.

 

11. Put the final dough on an oven tray with baking sheet. Brush surface with water, put a few sunflower seeds on top.

 

 

 

 
12. Bake the bread for 10 minutes in 230C. Then lower the heat to 200C and bake for 10 more minutes. When it is totally baked, it would make a hollow sound when knocked. When it is ready, take it out of the oven and leave to cool down a bit. Eat warm. Yumm warm.