irish brown bread // recipe

 Homemade brown bread is a favorite in our house. It's delicious, healthy, and it's pretty easy to make. I thought I'd share with you how we make it. The recipe makes the best brown bread I've ever had.

There are quite a few different kinds of grains in this recipe, but all of them you should be able to find in any grocery store - although in other countries they may be called different things. Also, if you're in a country that doesn't use weighing scales for baking, here's a handy website for you that converts these measurements into cups.

:: Makes Two Loaves ::

What You Need:

20 oz wholemeal (or extra course) flour

12 oz plain flour

2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda 

2 Tbsp pinhead (aka 'steelcut') oats

2 Tbsp wheat germ

2 Tbsp bran

6 oz butter

1 litre buttermilk

  First preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C). Then, in a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. First the wholemeal flour...

...then the plain flour...

...the salt...

...and the soda.

Next stir in the pinhead oats, the wheat germ, and the wheat bran.

Now for the messy part. With your hands, rub in the butter. This should be easy if the butter has softened a bit, but if you forget to set it out of the fridge (which I always do) a good tip is to use a cheese grater and grate the butter into the dry ingredients.

Next, pour in the buttermilk.

And you're done! Pour the mixture into two buttered loaf tins. We like to sprinkle a little pinhead oats on top, too. Bake for 45 - 55 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

This bread is seriously good. Let me know if you try it out - I'd love to hear what you think!

- Hannah