Recipe for Ballymaloe Brown Yeast Bread

When making Ballymaloe brown yeast bread, remember yeast is a living organism. In order to grow, it requires warmth, moisture and nourishment.

Yeast feeds on sugar and produces carbon dioxide bubbles which cause the bread to rise. Heat beyond 50ºC will kill yeast, so keep it cool.

The bread can include honey, treacle, molasses, golden syrup or even white or brown sugar — each will give a slightly different flavour to the bread. At Ballymaloe, we use treacle.

The bread dough will rise faster with 30g (1oz) of yeast rather than 25g (¾oz).

We use a stone ground wholemeal flour for our bread — different flours produce different textures and flavours. The amount of natural moisture in the flour varies according to atmospheric conditions and so the quantity of water added should be altered accordingly. The dough should be just a little too wet to knead.

The bread ingredients — wholemeal flour, treacle and yeast — are all highly nutritious.

Dried yeast may be substituted for baker’s yeast in this recipe. Follow the same method but use only half the stated weight and allow it more time to rise. Fast-acting yeast may also be used — follow the instructions on the packet.

Makes 1 loaf

450g (16oz) wholemeal flour — or 400g

(14oz) wholemeal flour plus 50g (2oz) strong white flour

425ml (15floz) water at blood heat (mix yeast with approx 140ml (5floz) lukewarm water)

1 tsp black treacle or molasses

1 tsp salt

30g (1oz) fresh non-genetically modified yeast sesame seeds (optional)

1 loaf tin approx 13x20cm (5x8inch)

Sunflower oil

Preheat the oven to 230ºC/450ºF/gas mark 8.

The ingredients should all be at room temperature.

Mix the flour with the salt.

In a small bowl or Pyrex jug, mix the treacle with 140ml (5floz) of the water and crumble in the yeast.

Sit the bowl in a warm place for a few minutes to allow the yeast to take effect. Grease the bread tins with sunflower oil, then check to see if the yeast mixture is rising. After about 4 or 5 minutes, it’ll have a creamy and frothy appearance on top.

When ready, stir and pour the yeast mixture, with the remaining water, into the flour and salt to make a loose, wet dough.

Put the dough into the greased tin and sprinkle it with sesame seeds if you like.

Put the tin in a warm place — somewhere close to the cooker or near a radiator perhaps and cover it with a tea towel.

When the bread rises to the top of the tin, remove the tea towel and put the loaf into the oven for 50-60 minutes or until it looks nicely browned and sounds hollow when tapped.

The bread will rise a little further in the oven —this is called ‘oven spring’. If, however, the bread rises to the top of the tin before it goes into the oven, it’ll continue to rise and flow over the edges.

We usually remove the loaf from the tin about 10 minutes before the end of cooking and put it back into the oven to crisp all round.