This is a 50/50 white / other flour mix.
I used Hovis Granary for the seeded flour.
Other flours can be substituted and the water tweaked to get a good dough consistency.
The yeast could be replaced with sourdough starter if you have extra time for it all to work.
The evening before ...
Thoroughly mix the following but don't kneed much at all.
Cover and leave the mix overnight.
The next day there might be some fermentation bubbles.
This is OK and might give a slight sourdough flavour.
If you have some sourdough starter, try adding some.
If you happen to be passing the mix, give it another stir.
If you're in a hurry, proceed to step 2, skipping the overnight soak.
The bread might rise a bit less.
OVERNIGHT INGREDIENTS
Water 640 g
Seeded Flour 500 g
Strong White Flour 166 g
Salt 6 g
Dried Milk Powder 4 tbsp
Sugar OR
Treacle OR
Molasses 3 tsp
NEXT DAY
Strong White Flour 333 g
Yeast 1 sachet
Oil 35 g
OR TRY
Flavourde oils
melted fats
suet
lard
fried onion
fried bacon
fried garlic
herbs
OPTIONAL EXTRAS
Nuts
Sunflower seeds
Sesame seeds
Poppy seeds
Oats
Barley
Chopped pumpkin seeds
Throw in the rest of the flour and the dried yeast.
Kneed for at least five minutes adding the oil last, bit by bit.
This helps to unstick the dough from the bowl.
Leave the dough to rise but not too long.
If you are in a hurry you can skip this first rise.
The bread will be good but will have a slightly less bready and more cake-like texture.
As soon as the dough is rising strongly, knock it down with a few seconds of kneeding.
Leaving the dough too long at the first rise, causes lifeless dense loaves or even bricks.
So far the entire process has taken place in the mixer bowl.
Now divide the batch it into two large bread tins or more smaller ones.
At this stage the dough can be covered with flour, oats or seeds or left as it is.
Let the dough rise again in the baking tins.
Leaving the dough too long at this stage gives larger uneven bubbles and possible loaf collapse in the oven.
Cook for 30 minutes on gas mark 7 or 220 C fan.
Overcooked loaves are too dry.
Undercooked loaves will be too soft or even soggy and raw.
If you use several smaller baking tins, the cooking time will be shorter.
You can make rolls. The cooking time is 10 to 12 minutes.
All ingredients should be at an ambient temperature around 22C.
If it's cooler things take longer but work well.
If it's a lot cooler, pre-warm the ingrediants.
If it's hotter everytthing is faster and there is more risk of a loaf collapse.
If it's a lot hotter, try to keep the mix cool.
I use a Kenwood Chef Major which copes with this amount of dough with spare capacity.
Beware of similar machines, often more expensive, which are not rated for this batch size (1.7kg).
I line the baking tins with silicone cotton and the bread never sticks.
Afterwards, the tins and fabric need to be dusted clean but not washed.