Irish Brown Bread - Charlie Oven

Irish Brown Bread

Written by: Tara Quick

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Time to read 1 min

Irish brown bread is so easy to make and tastes delicious.  This recipe is for the basic dough, to which you can add nuts, seeds, and dried fruit to turn it from an everyday loaf into a special treat.  Slice it and slather it with butter and jam.   This is a no-knead dough; simply mix the ingredients and put it straight in the oven.

Prep time

5 min

Cook time

45 min

Servings

4-6 pers

Category

Bread

Origin

Ireland

Ingredients

250g plain flour

250g wholemeal flour

40g wheat bran flakes (optional)

30g wheatgerm (optional)

2 tsp baking powder

600ml milk

30g honey

1tsp fine sea salt


Optional extras

You can add dried fruit, nuts, and seeds. Here are some of our favourite combinations: 

Roasted hazelnuts and dried figs and linseeds

Sultanas and dried cranberries

Toasted pistachios and dried apricots 


Toppings:

Add seeds to the dough top before putting it in the oven.  Mix it up, depending on what you fancy:

Sesame seeds

Poppy seeds

Pumpkin seeds



Directions

Step 1 - Mix the dough

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl together.

Whisk the milk and honey together.  Add the wet to the dry ingredients and make sure the batter is fully mixed together to avoid flour spots.  If you are adding nuts and seeds add them to the dry ingredients before adding the wet ingredients. 

Step 2 - Prepare the Charlie Oven

Prepare the Charlie Oven bring the temperature to 180°C.  Make sure the temperature has stabilised to 180°C. 

Step 3 - Bake

Line a rectangular baking tin with parchment paper. Add the bread batter, which will be wet a bit like cake batter.  Level the top and cut a line down the middle of the dough.  Top it with your favourite seeds or leave it bare.  Pop it into the Charlie oven with the rack in the third rack position from the top of the oven. 

Irish brown bread topped with sesame seed ready to go in to the Charlie Oven

Step 4

Bake for 50 minutes.  Check that it's done by skewering the bread.  The skewer should come out completely clean; if not, bake for a bit longer. When ready, leave to cool.  It is tempting to eat it while it's hot, but that ruins the texture of the bread.  We promise it will be worth the wait.  Enjoy!