Answer to Alicia's request - Brown bread

While I was away in China, a friend of mine got in touch via Facebook to ask me whether I had a recipe for Irish brown bread. The thing about China is that Facebook is censored so you cannot get access to it at all. So, although I am back from China and should be posting Asian recipes, well I am starting back with an Irish recipe to answer my friend's request.

I really like Irish brown bread. Despite this, it actually took me years before I attempted to make it. I had presumed that, like French bread and most white breads, it needed a lot of work and attention. I was quite surprised to find out that brown bread is made in 5 min, cooked in 45 min and is pretty much ready to eat in less than an hour. Needless to say, I have now caught up with all those years without making it. I now make it regurlarly.
When I know the bread loaf is not going to be eaten in the next two days, I usually bake the dough in muffin trays, that way I have mini brown bread muffins/loaves that can be used as needed. They can also be frozen that way and it is a lot easier to thaw them than to defrost a whole loaf of bread.

I think my favourite accompaniment to brown bread is probably home cooked ham, boiled eggs, cheese and an assortiment of salads... Great for picnics, rushed lunches and snacking!

Enjoy!


Ingredients:

- 1 mug (cup or other implement) of coarse white flour
- 1 mug of wholemeal flour
- 1/2 mug of wheat bran
- 1 teaspoon (not heaped) of salt
- 1 heaped teaspoon of bicarbonate soda
- About 450-500 ml of buttermilk
- 2 teaspoons of treacle
- various seeds

Procedure
1. Preheat your oven at 220°C.
2. Mix the coarse white flour, wholemeal flour, bran, salt, bicarbonate soda (you can add pumpkin seeds or any other seeds at this stage if you wish) and stir well.

3. Pour in the buttermilk until you obtain a fairly wet dough. The dough should be easy to stir. Stir well.
4. Add the treacle to the mixture, stir well.

5. Pour the mixture into a bread baking tin (I use a silicone one so I don't need to oil it, but if you use a metal one, make sure you oil it and flour it). Sprinkle some seeds on top of the bread.

6. Bake in the oven for about 35 min. Then take the bread loaf out of the tin, turn in upside down and bake for a further 10 min. If you are using muffin trays, your bread will be baked in about 20 min and you won't need to turn the muffins over during the baking process.
7. Take the bread out of the tin or muffin trays and leave to cool on a rack.