I recently went to Breads etc. in Brixton Market for brunch and they (quite predictably) make fabulous bread (and a mean brunch). My favourite bread by far was their 6-seed loaf – can you see where I’m going here?

Inspired by their delicious bread, I decided to make my own version, packed with lots of seeds and wholegrain flours. I used a combination of white flour, rye and spelt; but that was really to use up half empty packets at the back of the cupboard. You could use wholemeal flour or I’d like to try a version with oat flour, by which I mean blended porridge oats. I also used a pack of mixed seeds that I got from the supermarket, bulked up with extra poppy seeds – use whatever are your favourites, although I have to say the poppy seeds are particularly delicious.

This makes a surprisingly light loaf, perfect for sandwiches and addictive as toast.

300g white flour
100g spelt flour
100g rye flour
3 tbsp mixed seeds
1 tbsp poppy seeds
1 tbsp salt
1 packet fast-action yeast
1 tbsp olive oil
300ml warm water

• Tip the flours, seeds, salt and yeast into a bowl and stir well.
• Stir the oil into the warm water.
• Stir the water into the flour with a fork until you have a scraggy dough with no loose bits of flour.
• Tip the dough onto a work surface, scraping the bowl as clean as possible. I don’t tend to flour the work surface as you’ll knead extra flour into the dough and make it dry. Don’t worry if the dough is a little sticky, it will eventually become nice and smooth.
• Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes (I have to be honest here and say that I rarely knead dough for the full 10 minutes, I dream about having a Kitchen aid to do it for me.) It will be smooth and bouncy when it’s ready.
• Shape it into a tight round loaf shape, by smoothing the top and tucking it underneath, then put it back into the bowl. Cover the bowl with a plastic bag and set aside to rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours, or until doubled in size.
• Punch the air out of the dough, shape it into a loaf and place onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper.
• Cover the tray with the plastic bag and set aside for about 30 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 200C and place a tray in the bottom of the oven.
• Slash the top of the bread with a sharp knife and place into the oven. Pour a cup of water into the tray at the bottom of the oven just before closing the door. (This creates steam in the oven, so that the bread doesn’t form a hard crust too quickly and prevent it from rising. It helps create a lighter loaf.)
• Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until the base of the bread sounds hollow when tapped.

Tags: bread

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