Treacle Brown Bread

This has to be one of the quickest breads to make and it also tastes absolutely delicious.  Although I love making yeast-risen breads, there is a time element involved where you have knead the dough and set it aside to prove. Whist this doesn’t bother me, it is a little frustrating when you want something freshly baked in the minimum amount of time possible.

 

This recipe satisfies these requirements and you will be rewarded with a bread that emerges from the oven with such a tempting aroma that I guarantee that you will find it impossible not to cut yourself a slice immediately. The inclusion of treacle brings out the underlying sweet nuttiness of the brown flour that is used and gives the bread a wonderful depth of flavour.

 

The bread can be baked in one large 900g loaf tin but the recipe that I give here specifies the use of 4 x 250g loaf tins. I love the little loaves that they create as anything miniature, baked in individually sized portions always thrusts me back to my childhood with force and makes me feel joyous and carefree again without all the responsibilities of adulthood.

 

The bread pictured in the photos that accompany this post uses both white and wholemeal flour, but you can play around with the ratios of white to brown flour to suit your own tastes. I sometimes like to include some chopped nuts and I find that roughly chopped walnuts work particularly well.

 

This is heavenly bread, which unlike many so-called ‘quick’ breads actually keeps very well due to the humectant properties of the treacle that is used to make it.  It goes without saying that this bread is delicious, thickly sliced with a generous amount of butter slathered over it!

 

Ingredients:

115g white self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground ginger

330g wholemeal flour

115g butter, cubed

115g dark brown sugar

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

50g treacle

225ml of buttermilk
 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4. Line a 900g (or 4 x 250g) loaf tin(s) with some baking parchment or grease with a little butter and set aside.

2. Sieve the self-raising flour, baking powder and ground ginger into a large mixing bowl and then mix through the wholemeal flour.

3. Add the butter and rub into the flour mixture using your finger-tips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the brown sugar and mix through.

4. Put the eggs, treacle and buttermilk into a medium sized jug and mix together with a small whisk.  Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients using a wooden spoon to mix them together (the mixture will be slightly sloppy). Pour the mixture into the prepared tin(s) and bake in the preheated oven. A large loaf will take 45-50 minutes to bake whilst the smaller loaves will take approximately 25 minutes.

5. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for ten minutes. Then remove the bread from the tin(s) and place on a wire rack to finish cooling.

Makes 1 x 900g loaf OR 4 x 250g loaves.