Complex Carbs for Running

Now that I am training for a 10K race, I am doing long 6 miles runs on Saturdays with about 2 miles of walking before to warm up, and a 1 mile walk to warm down. I probably burn about 700-800 calories doing this and refuse to buy crappy health bars or gels or any of that crap. So I realized that I need more complex carbs for these long runs. And so, my Whole Grain Molasses Bread was born. This bread is wonderfully chewy and is perfect sandwich bread. The crumb is moist and the extra gluten called for by the recipe really makes the dough easy to work with. I made two smaller loafs and modified the original recipe from my bread book quite a bit. Each loaf made 10 small slices, and each slice grades A nutritionally and comes in at only 80 calories, 1.1g fat, 0mg cholesterol, 61mg sodium, 15.4g carbs, 1.7g dietary fiber, 2.4g sugars, 2.4g protein, 2% calcium, and 7% iron.


Proof 2 tsp active dry yeast in 1 cup of warm water and 1/4 cup of blackstrap molasses. Then add 1 cup of whole wheat flour (I swear by the King Arthur flours or Hodgson Mills flours -- it really makes a difference than using the generic brand), 1/2 cup rye flour, 1/8 cup millet flour, 2 tbsp gluten, and 1/2 tsp refined sea salt. Beat together until it combined and let rest covered for 10 minutes. Then turn out onto a floured board and incorporate as much of 3/4 cup unbleached bread flour as necessary. I probably used about 1/2 cup and tried to avoid letting the dough get too stiff. Knead for about 5 minutes until the dough is springy.

Let rise in a greased bowl until doubled, about an hour. Then I actually punched this down, divided the dough into two pieces and shaped into into to loaves on parchment paper dusted with cornmeal and placed on top of a big cutting board. I did the second rise overnight in the fridge with the loaves covered with a damp tea towel. Then, at the crack of dawn when I woke up, I took the dough out, preheated the oven to 350 degrees, and then baked these for about 35-40 minutes on a baking stone.

This bread makes for fantastic peanut butter (or in my case, almond butter is what I had on hand) and mango jam sandwiches. The molasses imparts a wonderful sweet flavor to the bread. I had two big pieces of this bread with a banana and egg whites prior to my run and it was the perfect fuel. My glycogen stores were happy the entire run.

I left the half of one of the miniloaves out for use tomorrow and into Monday. The other loaf, I sliced and wrapped first in saran wrap and then in a quart size freezer bag for use later in the week. The double wrapping helps keep the moisture from crystallizing and making it hard to just pull one or two pieces out. I just throw the frozen slices in the toaster and the pieces come out perfectly every time.