I am a toast person. Almost borderline “toast obsessive”. In fact, I pretty much start each and every morning with toast – slathered in homemade almond butter or Nutella or both. And, quite honestly, I’ll toast anything: classic sourdough, muti-grain, a baguette split lengthwise, a hunk of aging miche, even (on the rare occasion) cornbread. Give me good bread and I’ll make an excellent toast.

Adventure Bread

San Francisco is in the middle of a toast explosion right now. This is a very good thing. I hope the toast trend spreads like wildfire. There are naysayers (there are ALWAYS naysayers…sheesh), but they are ill-informed. A giant slab of handmade bread, toasted to perfection and glistening with honey and butter is worth every bit the $3.50 to $3.75. It just is. Especially when you compare it to that ice cream that is $5.00 plus and that glass of wine that is insanely marked up to $12-15 or that (WTF?!!!) cup of $10 coffee. But this is all beside the point. My point: stop hating on toast. Save the hate for something like ramen burgers 🙂 (j/k)

Some beautiful loaves at The Mill

When I finally made it to one of the toast epicenters, The Mill in San Francisco, I was not disappointed. Josey Baker is a bread maestro. The flour for the bread is milled on-site, the loaves are varied (Rosemary Polenta anyone?) and beautiful, and the toast is just…epic. I won’t go into too much detail except to say you should definitely add The Mill to your list of “must visit” San Francisco bakeries. And to top things off, Josey is a super great guy. He’s really sweet and really talented. And you should watch this video. It’s adorbs.

transcendent Rosemary Polenta bread (w/honey and butter) at the Mill

One of the first things I made from Josey’s book, Josey Baker Bread, was the Adventure Bread. I have a pretty strict gluten-free friend and I was determined to impress her. The bread did not disappoint. It is rich and tasty. And a little bit hippie. In fact, it kind of reminds me of a giant, less-sweet, granola bar. This is the kind of bread you would take with you while hiking (so many nutrients!). It also goes without saying that the adventure bread, thinly sliced and toasted within an inch of its life is a great way to start the day.

A few notes about baking Gluten-Free Adventure Bread:

-If you are baking this for gluten-free friends make sure you look specifically for gluten-free oats.
-I have made this bread a few times and it is kind of difficult to tell when it is done. While the instructions recommend to “bake for an hour or so”, I found that 1 hour and 15 minutes made the bread a little better – a little darker/toastier/heartier.
-psyllium seed husks are usually found in health food stores. I got mine from the “Whole Body” section of Whole Foods
-Per Josey, the bread taste best sliced super thin (about ½ inch) and toasted up.
-Josey was inspired to make this recipe per Sarah Britton at My New Roots

yup, adventure bread with honey and butter 🙂

Adventure Bread from Josey Baker Bread by Josey Baker

2 ¼ cups gluten-free rolled oats
1 cup sunflower seeds, toasted
½ cup pumpkin seeds, toasted
¾ cup almonds, toasted and coarsely chopped
¾ cup flax seeds
⅓ cup psyllium seed husk
3 Tablespoons chia seeds
2 teaspoon sea salt

Stir all of the above ingredients into a big bowl.

Oil a loaf pan (about 8 x 4in or 9 x 5in)

Then, whisk up the following wet ingredients in a small bowl:

2 Tablespoons maple syrup (use the real stuff)
¼ olive oil
2 ½ cups water

Pour the wet into the dry and use your hands to bring the “dough” together into one even mass. Pour or scoop the batter into the prepared pan. Cover the pan with a sheet of parchment and refrigerate over night.

The next day, preheat an oven to 400 degrees.

Bake the loaf for about one hour plus (maybe closer to one hour 15 minutes). Remove the loaf from the pan and let it cool for AT LEAST TWO HOURS. Slice/toast/top/eat!

adventure bread interior!