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.
5 min
45 min
4-6 pers
Bread
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.
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!