Rachel’s Brown Bread

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  This recipe dates back to my granny who then passed it onto my mum and then on to me and my sister. We both have very fond memories of coming home from school and the house smelling of fresh bread coming out of the oven. At one stage when my cousin was very young, she would only eat this bread with raspberry jam and nothing else!

  The recipe can be amended and adapted to suit your needs. If you wish you can add less plain flour and substitute with more wholemeal or vice versa for a loaf that is more white or brown-based.

  Over the years we have added the seeds but these can just as easily be omitted, for a plainer loaf, or you can add any number of a different combination of seeds to suit your tastes. At one stage we use to decorate the top with sesame seeds before it went into the oven and you could also do this with any other variety of seeds, to make it look prettier.

  Ingredients

  6oz plain white flour
  6oz wholemeal flour
  4oz bran flour
  1 teaspoon of salt
  2 teaspoons of bread soda
  ¾ pint of buttermilk
  2oz sunflower seeds
  2oz pumpkin seeds

  Method

  

  Preheat the oven to 200°c.

  

  Place the 3 flours, plain, wholemeal and bran in a mixing bowl.

  

  Sieve in the salt and bread soda.

  

  Add the seeds and mix all of the dry ingredients together. You can add any combination of seeds you wish.

  

  Make a well in the centre and pour in the buttermilk. Mix until all ingredients are combined. You are looking for moist consistency that the mixture will just drop off the spoon.

  

  Grease your 2lb loaf tin and spoon the mixture into the prepared tin. Press the mixture into the corners of the tin and if you wish you may add some seeds of your choice on the top for decoration.

  Place in the preheated oven at 200°c for 40 minutes until golden brown.

  

  Run a knife around the inside of the tin to loosen the loaf and tip out onto a wire rack.

  Tap the base of the loaf with your knuckles to check that it has a hollow sound and allow to cool before serving.

  

  This bread is delicious with many things, on it's own with butter and jam, slightly thickly as used for an open sandwich, cut thinly as a closed sandwich and even toasted with some peanut butter as a snack.

  It's so simple to make and the ingredients can be adapted to suit your tastes.