The best everyday brown bread recipe

Part of the reason Melissa and I moved down to Brighton was because we wanted to make a major change to our lifestyle.  We wanted to lead a more simple life, taking less for granted and even though we would have a much lower income, we wanted to spend our money with local businesses and eating local food rather than blindly pushing a trolley down the aisles in the Saturday morning supermarket rat race.

Several months on, we've realised we can't cut out the supermarket completely - it's just not practical or affordable - but we certainly make more informed and considered choices about the food we buy.  We buy most of our eggs, fruit and vegetables from local greengrocers The Park Farm Shop, we only buy sustainably sourced fish, fairtrade chocolate and coffee and we have boycotted nearly all processed food in favour of making everything from scratch. 

Occasionally we do slip, but one rule we've stuck religiously to is our pact not to buy supermarket bread.  It's not always been easy, especially because I'm a total toast fiend and breadmaking takes a long time, but we've not bought a single loaf since January.  So I have now had plenty of practice to perfect my favourite bread recipe, which I thought I would share with you.

This loaf is my ultimate sandwich bread - it's got a lovely springy soft crumb, subtle malty flavour, and it always turns out lovely and light.  Some bread recipes can be fickle, but this one always seems to turn out perfectly every time - it's pretty foolproof. 

Everyday Malted Brown Bread Recipe
Makes 2 loaves or 1 loaf and 8 rolls

700g brown or wholemeal bread flour
200g white bread flour
80g malt extract (you can find this in heath food stores or Holland & Barratt)
80ml sunflower or vegetable oil
4 tsp dried active yeast (I use Allinson's)
30g demerara or light brown sugar
3tsp maldon sea salt, crushed (if you use regular table salt you will need to add more - try 4tsp)
540ml water

1. Dissolve the sugar in 180ml boiling water in a large jug, then add 360ml cold water so you end up with a 540ml lukewarm sugar solution.  Sprinkle over the yeast and give the mixture a good whisk then leave in a warm place for about 20 minutes.  This gives the yeast the perfect wake up back to life ready to spring into action and create a lovely springy loaf. 
2. If you have a mixer with a dough hook then this recipe is a cinch.  While your yeast is reawakening, measure out the flours and salt into the bowl of your mixer and give it a quick mix.  Make a well in the middle and add the oil and malt extract.  Once your yeast mixture has a nice frothy head of about 1-2cm add this in as well and mix until combined.  Leave the mix to stand for 10 minutes to absorb the liquid into the flour before kneading.
3. Knead the mixture using the dough hook on a low setting for 10 minutes.  I'm sure you could do this by hand if you don't have a mixer, but it's quite a wet dough so be prepared to get your hands messy and try not to add much more flour during kneading.
4.  Shape your dough into a round, then place into an oiled bowl and cover with a teatowel or dark plastic bag.  Leave somewhere snug and draught-free to rise until doubled in size (mine usually takes less than an hour but will depend on the temperature of your room).
5. Once the dough has risen, tip out onto a lightly floured surface and press down all over with your fingertips to knock out the air.  You can then form into a round and leave to rise a second time to improve the flavour and texture, but it's not essential.
6. Split the dough evenly into two and shape into rounds (or rolls if you prefer).  I like the River Cottage Bread Book method which you can see here.
7. Place your shaped loaves onto a well floured teatowel and coat liberally all over with flour. Cover and leave to prove until nearly doubled in size (this usually takes about 20 minutes, but keep checking regularly). 
8. Preheat your oven to 210C (195C fan assisted) and stick a large baking sheet in to heat up.  When your loaves are ready to bake, it's best to work quickly!  Get the hot baking sheet out of the oven (shut the door quickly to keep the heat in) and cover with baking parchment or sprinkle with flour to stop the bread from sticking.  Transfer your loaves to the hot tray and slash the tops with a serrated knife - this helps the bread to rise evenly in the oven.  Put the loaves straight in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes (15-20 minutes for rolls), or until you hear a hollow sound when tapping on the base of the loaf.

The bread keeps well in the bread bin for a few days and also freezes very successfully.  It's not too dense (unlike many homemade brown bread recipes) so makes it perfect for sandwiches.  It does take a while to make, but if you have a mixer with a dough hook it really takes very little effort and is far better than any supermarket loaf. 

As always, I love to hear your comments so if you give this recipe a try please let me know how you get on :o)

Could this be the weirdest bread recipe ever?

I like to keep a recipe scrapbook of cuttings taken from magazines and Sunday supplements and recipes I've made up myself - it's a great frugal tip for a free recipe book. I rediscovered the first recipe scrapbook I made when searching for something completely different in one of the boxes we are still yet to unpack despite having moved in more than five months ago. 

You may have noticed that I tend to lean towards the quirky and leftfield when it comes to the things I pick to bake.  Like a magpie that's spotted something shiny, if there's a recipe that uses unusual ingredients or that sounds so bonkers you wouldn't think it would work - that's the one I'll choose.  Roll on the bread recipe that calls for treacle, instant coffee, cocoa powder, carrot and caraway seeds among its 13 ingredients.  This recipe for Black Bread looks like it was cut out of the Guardian Weekend and I thouroughly recommend it for entertainment value alone.  Let me walk you through the bizarre instructions for this loopy loaf.

Black Bread Recipe
150g spelt, rye or wholemeal flour
7g easy-blend yeast
1 tsp muscovado sugar
2 tbsp cocoa
2 tbsp instant coffee
75g treacle
3 tsp fennel, caraway or cumin seeds
50g unsalted butter
150g coarsely grated carrot, parsnip or celeriac
325g strong white flour
2 tsp fine sea salt
Oil
Sesame seeds

1. Whisk 225ml cold water and 50g of the spelt/rye/wholemeal flour in a saucepan, bring to a boil, tip into a bowl and leave until lukewarm.

2. Stir in the yeast and sugar, then leave, covered for 45 minutes.

3. Heat 100ml water with the cocoa, coffee, treacle, butter and fennel/caraway/cumin seeds until the butter has melted.

4. Leave until lukewarm then add to the yeast mix along with the grated veg.

5. Add the remaining flour and salt and stir into a soft sticky mess.
6. Rub a tablespoon of oil on both the worksurface and your hands, and give the dough a ten second knead.

7. Return to the bowl and repeat the ten second knead twice more at ten minute intervals.
8. Shape into a ball, put on an oiled baking tray, sprinkle with sesame seeds and put the whole tray inside a clean plastic bag or bin liner.  Leave in a warm place for 45 minutes to an hour.
9. Preheat the oven to 220C.  Cut a deep cross in the top of the dough and bake for 20 minutes, then drop the temperature to 180C and bake for 15-20 minutes more.  Voila!

The verdict - a really lovely, unusual loaf of bread.  I used caraway seeds which gave the bread quite a strong flavour, so I might try fennel or cumin seeds next time.  The texture of the bread was really lovely with a soft and springy crumb, perfect for sandwiches as it doesn't crumble easily.  It keeps very well - much longer than a regular loaf - although it doesn't really toast properly.  Not an everyday bread, but definitely worth the effort and it is now top of my list for the most bizarre bread I've ever made.

PS. In case you've not made bread before, to highlight how wacky this recipe is I will tell you that the basic bread recipe only uses flour, yeast and water, which you simply mix, knead, leave to rise and bake.  Boring!

Soda bread breakfast scones

We had planned to have some homemade sourdough bread for breakfast on Sunday morning, but when Melissa went to begin the recipe, she discovered that our homemade starter had died from neglect.  After a period of mourning we decided to learn the lesson that it definitely needs feeding every day, and said goodbye as Sarah the starter was resigned to the bin. 

Still we picked ourselves up and decided to start(er) again, and this time we have a bright pink postit reminder on the starter bowl:

We've decided that before we can get a pet (Melissa has been trying to persuade me to get a cat) we have to prove that we can look after the new starter and remember to feed it.  Updates to follow.

As the sourdough starter takes 7-10 days before we can use it to bake bread I needed a new plan. I decided I would get up before the others and bake a batch of soda bread, but instead of a large loaf I thought it would be cute to make individual scones and our guests could wake up to the aroma of freshly baked bread in the morning.

Adapted from a River Cottage soda bread recipe, here's how I made them:

Emily's soda bread breakfast scones recipe

250g plain wholemeal flour
250g plain white flour
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon fine salt
400ml natural yoghurt
A little milk, if necessary

Preheat the oven to 200C.
Mix the flours, bicarbonate of soda and salt together in a big bowl. 
Make a well in the centre and stir in the yoghurt until combined.  If the mixture needs it, add a tablespoon or two of milk to bring it together to a soft dough that's not too sticky.  You'll need to get your hands in at this point and bring the dough together into a loose ball.
Turn out onto a floured surface and divide into 8 even pieces. 
Roll gently into balls and place on a floured baking tray, leaving room around each one for them to rise.
Then with a sharp serrated knife cute a deep cross in each scone to let the fairies out (so the Irish legend goes).
Bake for about 22 minutes or until golden brown and when the biggest scone sounds hollow when tapped underneath.

Perfect with proper butter and homemade jam or marmalade and a strong cup of tea to cure a hangover.

A little more Irish inspiration

While I was at work on Tuesday, little did I know that there was a wee leprechaun beavering away in the kitchen cooking up a home-baked batch of Irish Soda Bread to go with some freshly made carrot and coriander soup for dinner.   Such a treat to be greeted with after a hard day's work I'll forgive Melissa for trying to steal my thunder!