Ciara's Little Eats: Crumbly, Crunchy Wheaten Bread

Happy 1st of March one and all! I hope you are all spending it in an enjoyable fashion?

So, this morning I made some wheaten bread. This is a lovely recipe; all crumbly and delicious. It has such an intense flavour and is all full of wheaten goodness.

The first time I made this it was lovely and all, it just wasn't what I wanted it to be. I wanted this bread to be so delicious it would make all other breads taste poor in comparison.

This can be due to many things. The recipe, the mood I was in on the day (if you don't want to bake, that can reflect in the flavour and whether the bake is successful or not I feel)

This bread is crumbly, but in a melt in your mouth, wholesome kinda way. It's crunchy, but in a freshly baked, crisp on the outside and fluffy in the middle kind of way. This wheaten bread is delicious and easy to make.

It smells gorgeous, tastes wonderful and is filling. You could bake this in a loaf tin, but I baked mine free form as I think it makes it more relaxed, traditional and attractive looking. I rather like a loaf that looks like it could just be pulled apart and shared... or not shared depending on how hungry and willing to share you are.

When you toast this bread and eat it with a little butter, oh man is t good! I mean it- if you've never toasted wheaten bread, you need to.

This is a recipe from All Recipes UK

The equipment you'll need for this bread is;

- 1 Baking tray, sprinkled with a little cold water and then dusted with wholegrain flour.
- 1 deep, large bowl
- 1 wooden spoon

The ingredients you'll need to make this bread is;

- 140g Bread Flour; I used '00' Strong, White Bread Flour
- 350g Wholegrain Flour
- 1 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1 1/4 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
- 2 tsp Caster Sugar; the recipe said this was optional, but I like my wheaten bread to be a little sweet
- 60g Butter
- 450ml Buttercream

I only had normal milk, so to make buttermilk, I added the juice of 1 lemon to the milk, stirred it and left it to thicken.

- 4 tbsp Vegetable Oil; I didn't have any, so I used Sunflower Oil
- 2 tbsp of Milk; for brushing the top of the bread with before going into the oven

The method for making this bread is pretty simple, quick and easy;

You want to preheat the oven to 200 C in a fan assisted oven and allow this to come up to temperature. Get out a baking tray and sprinkle it with cold water. Then get a pinch of wholegrain flour and dust the tray. The water will help the flour cling to the tray, as well as stopping the bread from sticking to the base when baking.

Weigh out all the ingredients and put them into separate bowls.

Bung the dry ingredients; the flours, bicarbonate, salt and sugar into one bowl and give them a mix together with a whisk. Leave this aside.

Add in the softened butter and work it together using your fingers until the mixtures looks like breadcrumbs.

Time to get the milk ready, combine the lemon juice and milk together and give it a whisk to ensure it is all blended together.

Add in the oil and add this to the dry ingredients.

With a wooden spoon, mix, mix and mix this disgusting looking dough until it combines.

I'm saying disgusting as it looks like oatmeal and I loath oatmeal. Could never get into it. It's too gloopy and bland, even when I add stuff to it. I spent a week eating oatmeal for breakfast and it was horrid. By the end of the week the stuff refused to go down my throat.

Add a little milk mix at a time as you don't want to add too much and have it turn unstable and runny.

Once the mixture/dough comes together, knead it for 1 minute and then shape into a round shape. Plop onto the floured tray and using the wooden spoon, take the handle and dust it with a little of the wholegrain flour. Then press it into the dough twice, creating a cross shape.

Use a pastry brush to brush over a little of the milk onto the wheaten bread. This will give the bread a nice glaze and colouring; all golden and baked.

Bung this in the oven and leave to bake for 30 minutes at 180C. Then turn down to 150 C, flip the bread around (as in the bread that was at the back of the oven, will now be at the front) and bake for a further 30 minutes or however long it takes for the bread to be baked and when you take it out and tap it on the base that it sounds hollow.

Once the bread is baked, take it out of the oven and leave to cool on a cutting board. When it is cooled, slice it and butter or jam it. Serve it with prawns. Do whatever you want, whatever makes you happy! :)