Walnut Bread

“Whether or not you’re into fibremaxxing, this loaf sees your wholemeal and raises you nuts and dried fruit.

“Like some of the other recipes on our site, such as our bag o’bread, this is tried and tested to fit around your day. For the most part it gets on with its thing, while you get on with yours. None of that hanging around for half a day, waiting in attendance to do another step every half an hour or so, for fear the dough collapses if you leave it too long.”

Ingredients

500g wholemeal flour
350-400g water
100g walnuts
100g dried fruit (such as vine fruits, figs, dates or apricots)
20g walnut oil
9g fresh yeast (or 3g additive-free fast acting yeast)
8g salt
Extra flour for dusting and fat / oil to prevent sticking

Method

Chop or crush the walnuts. Dissolve the salt in the water. Mix the ingredients (except the extra flour and oil) together until no dry bits remain. Cover the dough (to stop it drying out) and leave to rest of half an hour, then stretch and fold the dough, before covering again and leaving at room / ambient temperature (abut 19-20°C) for about five or six hours to prove.
Shape the dough – whether for a loaf tin, banneton / proving basket, or free standing, is up to you. If using a tray or loaf tin, grease / oil it, or liberally flour your proving basket, before placing the dough on / in it.
Cover the dough and leave for about another two hours to finish rising.
Heat the oven to 220°C (200°C fan). Dust the top of the dough with flour and place in the oven. If you used a basket for proving, flour the dough and then turn it out onto a tray or baking stone, or into a heated casserole dish / Dutch oven (or other large, heatproof pot), before dusting the top of the dough.
Bake for 45-60 minutes, turning the heat down to 200°C (180°C fan) after about the first 10-15 minutes. Take the loaf out of the oven and place on a wire rack to cool before slicing. It goes well with cheese!

Baker’s tips

As wholemeal bread does not rise as high as white bread, this recipe will fit comfortably into what’s often referred to as a 1kg or 2lb loaf tin. You might prefer to seek out a taller, narrower tin that’s designed for wholemeal bread.
Timing-wise, if you mix the ingredients at breakfast time (say about 8am or 9am), then the dough should be ready to shape at about 2pm or 3pm, and fully-proved at about 5ish – so you could bang it and your dinner in the oven at about the same time.
As for leaving out, adding or substituting ingredients, go for it, make this bread your own!

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