English Granary-Styled Bread

A simple homemade granary bread recipe that is delicious when straight from the oven. It's excellent toasted and buttered for breakfast and sandwiches.
Granary bread is a classic English brown bread made with a mixture of whole wheat, rye and white flours, with cracked grains of malted barley and wheat. This recipe, adapted from Delicious Magazine, combines an oaty topping, a handful of seeds and a mix of white bread, wholemeal spelt and rye flours to give your bread more substance. Since I don't have malted barley or wheat on hand, I added two teaspoons of malted barley extract powder to give the granaary bread that characteristic taste and aroma.

300 g Strong white bread flour (I used German #550), plus extra for dusting
100 g Dark rye flour (I used German #1050)
100 g Spelt berries, milled into flour ( or regular wholemeal flour)
2 tsp Malted barley powder
7 g Dried yeast
1 tsp Sea salt
50 g Mixed seeds (I used toasted sunflower and flax)
60 g Black treacle or molasses
320 ml Milk
30 g Rolled oats for topping

Mix together the flours, malted barley powder yeast, salt and seeds in the bowl of your stand mixer. Put the treacle or molasses and milk in a saucepan and stir together over a very low heat until the treacle has melted into the milk (don’t let it boil). Take the pan off the heat and let it sit for a minute to cool slightly.
Pour the milk mixture onto the dry ingredients and mix at lowest speed until the dough comes together. Increase the speed to medium and knead until the dough springs back to the touch, for 5-10 minutes.
Turn out the dough and shape into a ball. Grease the mixing bowl and return the dough ball, then cover with cling film. Leave in a warm place for 50-60 minutes until the dough has almost doubled in size and springs back when pressed.
Tip out onto a lightly floured work surface and gently knead to knock out any large air pockets. Shape into an oval or round and place it into a floured proofing basket. Slash the top once lengthways, then sprinkle with the oats and a dusting of flour. Leave to prove in a warm place for 45 minutes.
Heat the oven to 200C/400F and pour freshly boiled water into a roasting tray in the bottom of the oven. This will create steam, which helps give the dough a great rise and a crusty exterior. Bake the loaf for 45-50 minutes until golden, fragrant and crusty. Check the bread has fully cooked by lifting it out of the tin and tapping the bottom – it should sound hollow. Leave to cool on a wire rack before slicing.

4 comments:

Tom 25/9/24 13:30: ...it sure hearty!
DEZMOND 25/9/24 13:39: Tis purrrfect for these rainy Autumn days while we are waiting for the flooded Danube to hit us (which should happen in my country today or tomorrow). Hope you are dry and warm.
eileeninmd 25/9/24 14:51: Looks good, healthy choice too. Take care, have a great day!
foodtravelandwine 25/9/24 15:45: It looks so good!....I can't wait to try it!!.......Abrazotes, Marcela