Last fall, Scott and I took a long weekend in Ireland. We flew to Shannon, rented a car, and then headed to the small town of Doolin. Each meal out was a surprise of delicious home made tastes. The Irish have embraced the slow food movement. Menus were focused on locally sourced ingredients. Fish chowder, smoked salmon, local cheese. Especially delicious was the brown bread that seemed to accompany each meal (or maybe that is just because of what I ordered!) Each restaurant seemed to have their own version. But all of them were nutty and chewy and delicious with Irish butter.
I determined to figure out how to make my own once we got home. I tried a couple different recipes, some made with yeast and some soda bread. The recipe I ended up liking the best I found through David Lebovitz’s blog.
Ballymaloe Brown Bread
1 9-inch loaf
David Lebovitz emphasizes the importance of stone ground whole wheat flour. I found a nice bag of New York State, stone ground flour, at Whole Foods. It was a little bit expensive, but makes great tasting bread. The bag of flour and the other ingredients still make for an inexpensive loaf of artisanal bread.
3 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour, preferably stoneground
1/2 cup white flour, all-purpose or bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plus 1 1/2 cups tepid water
1 tablespoon dark molasses
2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1. Mix the flours with the salt in a medium bowl.
2. Put 1/2 cup of water into a small bowl and stir in the molasses, then add the yeast, stirring a couple of times. Let stand until it starts to foam on top, about 10 minutes.
3. Pour the yeast mixture and the remaining 275ml (1 1/2 cups) water into the flour and stir until a batter is formed, which will have the consistency of oatmeal. Let stand 10 minutes.
4. Spray a nonstick 9-inch loaf pan with nonstick spray and cut a piece of parchment or wax paper to line the bottom of the pan. (I create a parchment lining for the pan bottom and walls) Scrape the dough into the prepared pan, smooth the top with a spatula or if it’s sticky, dampen your hand and use that then drape a kitchen towel over the top and let rise in a warm place until the dough reaches the top of the pan, about 20 minutes.
5. Before the dough has almost reached the top of the pan, preheat the oven to 450ºF . When the dough has reached the top of the pan, bake the bread for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, decrease the heat to 400ºF. Run a knife around the outside of the bread to release it from the pan, tip the loaf out of the pan, remove the parchment paper, and place the loaf upside down directly on the baking rack and let bake another 15 minutes, or until done. The bread is ready when you tap the bottom and it sounds hollow. If using an instant-read thermometer, the temperature should read 190ºF. Let the bread cool on a wire rack before slicing.
Principal of Cooking 