A happy accident: sesame vs sunflower seeds

Last week the Boyfriend decided that it was time to move on from making bagels which, though gorgeous, are very time-consuming to something a little faster. As we both take our lunches to work, we’re going through a lot of brown bread at the moment (mostly McCambridge‘s…especially nicely nutty when toasted) so he decided to make a couple of loaves of my Brown Soda Bread. After a few minutes hovering and being more hindrance than help, I decided to leave him to it. I curled up on the couch in the living room with a book as he worked away in the adjacent kitchen – close enough to help if asked but far away so that I wouldn’t be interfering!

All went smoothly and I just arrived back at the cooker to see him put the loaves in the oven. Normally I sprinkle them with sesame seeds but these looked like they were topped with sunflower seeds. Curious, I thought, asking the Boyfriend what he had put on the loaves. “Sesame seeds,” he said defensively, “like it said in the recipe. YOUR recipe.” I did a double take – had I just bought a packet of absolutely enormous sesame seeds? – but no, looking through the oven door they were definitely sunflower seeds. And so they proved. The Boyfriend, after looking at sesame seeds in the list of ingredients, had grabbed the first bag of seeds from the baking cupboard that started with S. I’m glad he didn’t make the same mistake between bread soda/bicarbonate of soda and baking powder! As it turned out, the sunflower seed-topped loaves were so good that I’ve now started sprinkling both seeds on top of the loaves before I put them into the oven. And, after Sunday’s trip to Avoca, I might even be adding poppy seeds to the flour along with the normal pumpkin seeds to make some Multi-Seed Brown Soda Bread.