Simple Irish Brown Bread
Made with whole wheat flour, wheat germ, and rolled oats, this simple Irish brown bread comes together in no time and yields a hearty, super-tasty loaf, perfect for toasting and slathering with good Irish butter. Break out the Kerrygold! Recipe adapted from reader Michael — thank you! Notes: For best results, use a scale to measure. Flour: I'm using 100% Cairnspring Mills stone-milled flour here. For the bread flour portion of the recipe, I used their Glacier Peak Bread Flour, and for the whole wheat flour, I used their Sequoia All-Purpose Flour. Just know that you can really use any mix of whole wheat and all-purpose or bread flour here — it's a dense, hearty bread so many flours will work. You need 2.75 cups flour total. Salt: If you are using Morton Kosher Salt or fine sea salt, use half as much by volume or the same amount by weight.
Ingredients
- 180 grams (about 1.5 cups) bread flour, see notes above
- 165 grams (about 1.25 cups) whole wheat flour, see notes above
- 50 grams (about 1/2 cup) rolled oats, plus more for sprinkling
- 44 grams (about 1/2 cup) wheat germ
- 10 grams (about 2 teaspoons) brown sugar
- 10 grams (about 2 teaspoons) Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt, see notes above
- 5 grams (about 1 teaspoon) baking soda
- 1 egg
- 450 grams (about 1.75 cups) buttermilk
- 28 grams (2 tablespoons) melted butter
Instructions
- 1
Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Butter an 8.5×4.5 inch loaf pan.
- 2
In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
- 3
In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, egg, and melted butter.
- 4
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and use a spatula to mix until you have a wet, sticky batter. Transfer the batter to the prepared loaf pan. Using a wet hand, spread the batter out evenly in the pan. Sprinkle oats over the top to cover.
- 5
Transfer to the oven for 45 to 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out cleanly. If you have an instant-read thermometer, it should register roughly 205ºF when it’s done. Do be sure to test the loaf before removing it from the oven — once I removed it without testing, and upon cutting it, I found a pocket of un-cooked dough in the center. Err on the side of over-baking — it’s forgiving!
Cook it from the original
This recipe comes from alexandracooks.com. Their page has the author’s own photos, notes and tips — the best place to cook it from.
Open the recipe on alexandracooks.com