Spring break is over for our school district. I was working different hours, so again, I was thrown off schedule. The only craft I dabbled in was making a delicious Blue Haven Brown Bread. I got the recipe from "The Best of Irish Breads & Baking", which was written and published in Dublin, Ireland. COOL HUH?! I will share this recipe.
Blue Haven Brown Bread
Ingredients:
1 lb./ 450 g/ 4 cups wholemeal flour (whole wheat)
2 tsp/ 2½ US tsp salt
1 tsp/ 1¼ US tsp black treacle (molasses)
1 oz/ 25g/ fresh yeast
12 fl oz/ 350 ml/ 1½ cups of tepid water
Mix the flour with the salt and set it to warm in a cool oven. I just placed it on the burner that the heat releases to warm mine up. Mix the treacle/molasses with a little of the water in a small bowl and stir in the yeast. Leave it in a warm area. I placed my bowl near the warm burner. I used 1/2 cup water for the yeast mixture.
Grease one large pan or two small ones and put them in a warm place, also. In 45 minutes the yeast will froth up like mine did in the photo above. Stir it well and then add the remaining water - 1 cup.
Stir the mixture into the flour to make a fairly wet dough. Mine wasn't wet at all so I added more water. I didn't measure, I just turned on the tap and ran it in the bowl until it looked right.
After it's mixed, place it into your greased pan for 20 minutes to rise. The book says it should double in this amount of time. I let mine rise for 45 minutes. It rose a little higher, and totally filled out the pan, but I don't know that I would say it "doubled". While it's rising, preheat oven at 470° F/ 230° C/ gas 8. When I was satisfied with the rise of the dough, I put it in the oven for 40 minutes. The instructions say to bake for 45 to 50 minutes until nicely browned and sounds hollow when tapped.
Cool on a wire rack. And here is the finished bread! YUM.
This is a nice heavy bread. Serve with butter and honey! (Or if you're on a diet like I am, serve with jam.) I do want to mention that this bread is pretty salty. Next time, I might put 2 teaspoons or 1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt into the mix. I don't know if breads are more salty in Ireland or what. I'll have to browse the other recipes. I would totally make this bread again!
Hope you try this recipe because of the ease. If you do let me know if you do anything different. :)
I don't have much on the agenda for this week - other than attending the gym and working on my white crocheted scarf. If I get a bug to work on my quilted tote, I might do that.
Well, until next Monday... have a wonderful week!
1 comment:
Since I'm interested in sewing and cooking, I'll have to be weasely and say that for those I like tutorials and for your other crafts I like seeing the finished results. I like your blogs here regardless, so keep doing what makes you happy. :)
That bread looks so yummy! I haven't tried to bake bread in so long! My folks handed down their old bread machine to me many years ago. The last time I made bread, I used the machine, and I think I also used a bread mix. I recall being disappointed in the results and not being sure if it was because of the machine or the mix. Next time around, I think I'd like to make bread completely by hand and from scratch.
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