Let’s get straight to the point: hemp is cannabis, but it’s not as wondrous as you might think it is. It’s a strain of the Cannabis sativa – a plant usually grown for industrial uses, prized by the sailors (ropes), merchants (garments), boy scouts (hemp shorts) and botanists (they just love greens) alike for many years. It’s a fibrous representative of the Cannabis genus, but it doesn’t contain THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) – a substance that another subspecies of Cannabis, namely indica (you know is as marijuana), contains in abundance and loved for. It carries a psychoactive compound that made it a popular drug. But hemp is not marijuana. And we are here to bake not to be baked.
That’s why we are more interested in hemp and its seeds. They stand out as a nutritional powerhouse. People snack them, make oil out of them, sprinkle them on top of salads and sides, make milk and ice-cream out of them, incorporate them into hummus and, of course, grind them to make flour.
The easiest way to make your favs from the oven is to mix 50% of regular flour with 50% of hemp seed flour and then simply follow any recipe of baked goods. But we promised a good recipe, so please follow.
You’d need about 75–80 g / 1/2 cup of hemp seed flour, about 75–80 g / 1/2 cup of ground linseed, 100 g / 1 cup of ground almonds (you can surely add a couple of whole nuts of your choice just to get it all rocking) , 1 tsp of baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. That’s it for the dry ingredients. You’ll also need 4 large eggs, 3 tsp of lemon juice or vinegar and 2 Tbsp of olive oil. These are the wet ingredients.
Go ahead and get a loaf tin, cover it with a piece of parchment paper and grease sides with butter. Preheat oven to 170 C / 340 F. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix them well. Whisk together the wet ingredients in another bowl and then pour then into the ‘dry’ bowl. Transfer the mixture into the loaf tin, spread evenly and put it into the oven for 30-40 minutes.
Once ready, take it out, scrape your cannabis bread and rest it under the towel. You are great!
What do you think?