Rustic Brown Loaf

When you want some extra crunch and bitey-ness in your bread, it's nice to add seeds or grains.

That said, I am not a fan of so-called granary bread. As a child, I remember hating the unchewable lumps that spoiled an otherwise perfectly soft slice of bread.

My rustic loaf is more robust than soft, with flavour and texture imparted by a variety of seeds and some porridge oats. You could vary the seeds, of course, but this is my version.

Rustic Brown Loaf

440g/15 oz/3 cups wholemeal flour
60g/ 2 oz/⅔ cup porridge oats
1 tsp instant dried yeast
2 tsp salt
20g/4 tsp pumpkin seeds
20g/4 tsp sesame seeds
20g/4 tsp sunflower seeds
340ml/11 fl oz/1⅓ cups water

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl and add the water bit by bit.  Depending on the exact type of flour you use, or the exact combination of seeds you include, the dough might need more or less water.  Use your hand to work the dough until it is a uniform texture with a sticky consistency.

Leave the dough to rise until it has doubled in size.  The presence of porridge oats in this mixture mean that it will not rise as much as the dough of my basic bread recipe.

Tip the dough onto a floured surface and knead it for a few minutes.

Press the kneaded dough into a greased loaf pan and leave it to rise again.

The dough is ready to bake when it has almost reached the top of the pan.  Again, it won’t rise as much as ‘normal’ dough, due to its seed and oat content.

Bake at 230^oC/450F for five minutes then 180^oC/360F for 30 minutes.  The loaf is fully cooked when it tips easily out of the pan and sounds hollow when you knock on it.

Leave the loaf to cool on a wire rack before cutting it.

Want this recipe in a more convenient format? It's available in my ebook, available via the link in the sidebar.