My search for a really great brown bread?.

I’m having a love affair with brown bread!!

You know, that amazing stuff that’s properly baked in a loaf tin without lots of crap added to it like in our ordinary sliced pans. It’s the bread you’re always thrilled to get when you order a bowl of soup in a pub or restaurant. The stuff that you thought only your old granny or grandad ate back in the 1950′s. I just love it.



Toasted with a bit of jam or broken up into chunks and flung randomly into a bowl of soup left to soak up the liquid. It usually doesn’t due to it’s density. I started buying it in Dunnes about 2 years ago but at the same time I was really getting into my ‘making everything from scratch’ kick and decided that it would probably work out healthier and cheaper to just make my own….especially since I have my cupboards packed to the rafters full of “just in case” ingredients.



I’ve tried multiple recipes…the worst being ‘Dad’s Brown Bread’ from Rachel Allen’s Cookbook “Food for Living”. Out of the maybe 10 times I’ve made that bread, blaming everything from my oven with it’s broken thermometer to the ingredients I was using, it only turned out right only once (after I halved the amount of liquid she says to use). I subsequently decided it was just the recipe itself. It’s crap (sorry Rachel) and my search began in earnest for a really good, foolproof brown bread recipe. I’ve tried recipes from magazines, cookbooks, the internet and the best one (and the yummiest) that I’ve come across so far are two recipes from my Cornucopia Cookbook. The first being the Wholemeal soda bread on page 354 and my favourite one yet is the Spelt Bread on page 358.



Spelt flour is used increasingly these days as an alternative to wheat flour for people with wheat intolerance. I don’t have a wheat intolerance but I’m willing to try anything and having sampled spelt bread in a food store a couple of weeks ago I just loved the flavour. I also loved the seeds dotted throughout and on top, giving the bread a delicious nutty flavour and making you feel healthy and virtuous feeling all those B group vitamins that must be coursing through your veins after partaking of a slice! You can get Spelt flour in The Health Store or any health shop….I’ve even seen it in ordinary supermarkets and mixed seed packs are available everywhere. I really urge you to try this bread. It’s easy to make and there’s no babysitting involved at all….it came out absolutely perfectly first time So here’s the recipe:



Ingredients:

425g spelt flour

40g sesame seeds

40g sunflower seeds

40g pumpkin seeds

15g poppy seeds

15g linseeds

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt (heaped)

550ml water

1 tbsp treacle (blackstrap molasses) optional (also available in The Health Store)



2lb loaf tin



* If you don’t want to invest in five different seeds, make up a total of 150g of mixed seeds with what you have available





Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C (170 for fan ovens) and brush the bread thin with oil. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Add the salt and the seeds and combine thoroughly. Form a well in the centre of the mix.



2. In a jug, combine the water and treacle, stir well and then pour it into the well in the centre of the dry mix. Use a spoon or your hand to bring all the ingredients together evenly. Make sure that the treacle is evenly distributed, not clumped in sticky pockets. Use as little mixing as possible to achieve and even mix. It should be of a very sloppy consistency.



3. Transfer the mix to the oiled tin and press down evenly. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 60 minutes, until well risen and evenly browned. Run a knife around the edge of the loaf, turn out onto a wire rack and tap the base with your finger. If it makes a hollow sound, the bread is cooked. Cover with a tea towel and leave to cool completely on rack before cutting.