Recipe: Brown bread

THIS was one of those happy accidents.

Strong brown flour was picked from the shelf at Morrisons instead of wholemeal. I’ve always been suspicious of brown flour. So what is it? According to my mother’s late old friend Charles Sinclair in his Dictionary Of Food, it is “wheat flour containing between 80 and 90 per cent of the dehusked grain.

Part of the bran is removed but the wheat germ remains. Also called wheatmeal flour”. So now we know.

This recipe makes soft brown bread and is adapted from one by Dan Lepard for wholemeal bread and uses his brief kneading technique.

Brown bread, one loaf

300ml warm water
One sachet fast-action yeast
450g strong brown flour
One teaspoon fine sea salt
50ml olive oil
Generous teaspoon of malt extract

Put the flour in a large bowl, adding the salt and yeast on different sides of the bowl. Whisk the malt extract and olive oil with the warm water and pour over the flour. Bring together and knead for a few seconds. Cover bowl with a clean tea towel and leave for ten minutes. Knead briefly, repeating after 15 and 30 minutes.

Leave for 15 minutes then shape into a loaf and pop in a greased and floured tin. Leave to rise until doubled in size (about an hour) then slash the top of the loaf with a sharp knife. Cook in a hot oven (220C/200C fan) for 20 minutes, before reducing the temperature to 200C or 180C fan and bake for a further 20 minutes.

Remove from tin and place on a wire tray to cool. While the bread is still hot from the oven, brush with cold water for a shiny glaze.

Note: if you have the oven on full blast for the first 20 minutes, the top of the loaf may catch, but the burnt crust is tasty and doesn’t go deep.

Twitter:@JulianCole5