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Wholemeal Honey Bread

Making yeast bread from scratch is becoming a lost art, but it is the perfect thing both for teaching new skills and for having fun with your children. Even if you’ve never made bread before, why not spend the time together as a family learning to get it right? Children always have such fun watching and waiting for the dough to rise and then punching it down. Although you should put aside a whole morning or afternoon for this, you’ll be able to get on with plenty of other things while the bread is rising. This is a simple and tasty bread, and once you have mastered it you’ll want to move on to other flavours and combinations (see variations, opposite).

MAKES 2 X 900G (2LB)

LOAVES

VEGETARIAN

450ml (16fl oz) warm water

3 tbsp honey

3 tsp dried or fast-acting yeast or 40g (13/4oz) fresh yeast

600g (1lb 7oz) strong white flour

300g (11oz) wholemeal flour

2 tsp salt

100g (4oz) butter, cut

into cubes

1 In a small bowl, mix the warm water with the honey, add the yeast and leave to stand for 5 minutes until slightly frothy.

2 Place the flours in a big mixing bowl (or the bowl of an electric food mixer) and mix in the salt and then rub in the butter. Pour most of the frothy liquid into the flour and mix to a dough – it should not be too wet and sticky; if it’s too dry, add more warm water and if it’s too wet, add more flour.

3 Knead by hand on a floured surface or in the mixer for about 10 minutes (it may only take 5 minutes in the mixer) until the dough is smooth and springy. Place in a lage oiled bowl, cover with cling film and leave somewhere warm (like a warm spot in your kitchen) for 2–3 hours until it’s doubled in size. It has risen enough when it does not spring back when you push your finger onto the dough.

4 When it’s risen, knock it back by punching it down in the bowl (my children love this bit!) and kneading on the floured surface for 1 minute. Allow to rest on the work surface, covered with a tea towel for 5 minutes before shaping it. I usually shape this into two round or oval loaves but, of course, you can make individual rolls if you wish (you would get about 20 rolls). Slash the loaves four or five times over the top with a sharp knife (I don’t do this with rolls). Do make sure you flatten the loaves and rolls to about 4cm (11/2in) high because they will rise.