Yummy "Pimpable" Brown Bread

Bread.

To put it simply, I love bread. I love it a lot. I love the smell of it baking in the oven, I also love the smell of it being heated up and browned in a toaster. I love the feeling of cutting through a freshly baked loaf (especially if it has a thick, crispy crust). I love using it to mop up whatever is left in my soup bowl, or my dinner plate after I chow down.

I love bread, dammit.

Moving on...

When it comes to baking bread, I would consider myself an amateur. But one thing I reckon I have mastered is how to make a delicious, healthy, nutty (and fruity if you like that kind of thing) proper brown bread.

This recipe is a handy one, and here's why...

1. It takes very little time to prep
2. It is easy to remember and straight forward to follow
3. You can easily pimp the base recipe up, by adding seeds, nuts or fruit, if you fancy! Hence the name...

The Ingredients:
1lb of Wholemeal Flour (I use Stoneground extra coarse flour)
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of sugar
2 teaspoons of breadsoda
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
500 ml of milk (I use soya milk or walnut milk because I am a lactose intolerant geek)

Optional - selection of seeds, nuts, fruit. I like to use poppy seeds, linseeds, crushed walnuts and orange sultanas.

The Method:

• Set your oven to 200º (or gas mark 6 for those of you with "vintage" cookers ;-))
• Use butter to grease up a loaf tin, and make sure you get all the edges so as to avoid any "stickage". Set it aside
• Mix together your flour, sugar, salt and breadsoda in a bowl. 
• Add together the milk, olive oil and red wind vinegar in a measuring jug and, using a non-metal spoon, add to the dry ingredients, mixing well
• Optional - Mix in 40g of your choice of nuts and 40g of your choice of fruit
• Pour the entire mix into your greased up loaf tin and sprinkle the top with a small amount of your nut/seed mix (about 10g)
• Pat down the topping with a wooden spoon, but not too much that it sinks into the mix
• Take the handle end of a fork and drag it down the middle - Lengthways - of the bread, as if you were cutting it in half. Needless to say, the mix is in liquid form, so you might think this is pointless, but it isn't. It will help to even out the mix and ensure it rises nicely
• Bake in the centre of the oven for one hour.
• When it's cooked, remove your bread from the oven and leave it to cool for about 5 minutes, before taking it out of the tin to cool completely on a wire tray. 

A tip - if you're not sure of the best way to extract the bread from the tin, take a tea towel and wrap it over the top of the tin. Turn the tin upside-down and give it a little shake to loosen the bread (if necessary). Ease the bread out and into the tea towel, then flip it back onto the wire tray to cool

Et Voila..!

Like it sweet? Bake the fruit and nut option, and have it with chopped banana and a dollop of apricot jam (Bonne Maman is my fave), or peanut butter.

Like it savoury? Bake with nuts and seeds only, and have toasted with scrambled or poached egg, avocado and feta cheese, with some rocket.

NOM!

Keep an eye out for lots more yummy bread recipes :-)

Becca x

PS. Perfect to listen to whilst getting your brown bread bake on? Van Morrison's 'Into the Music'. Number one track on the album had me giving it socks around the kitchen -