I was super happy with this bread, which I adapted from a recipe I found on BBC Food. It’s just hearty enough, and the crumb is not too heavy owing to the generous proportion of strong bread flour. Molasses gives it a slightly sweet undertone, with a blend of seeds throughout to give some bite. The crust was just gorgeous with a lovely crunch.

Ingredients:

200g spelt flour

400g strong bread flour

1 1/2 tsp dried yeast

2 tablespoons molasses

1 1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 cup mixed seeds (poppy, sesame, pumpkin, sunflower, chia)

Directions

Make the dough:

In a medium sized bowl, weight out flours and add salt. Set aside.

In another bowl, add 350mL filtered water to the dried yeast and molasses and stir to dissolve.

Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in yeast mixture. Mix to hydrate the flour and begin to knead by hand for 8-10 minutes. Alternately, use an electric mixer. If the dough seems dry, add water tablespoonful by tablespoonful until you have a pliable dough. It should not be too sticky.

First rise:

Cover the bowl and allow to rise in a warm place (if it’s cold in my house I turn on my electric blanket and the dough bowl in the blanket) for 2 hours.

Second rise:

At the end of 2 hours, the dough should be doubled in size. Add most of the seed mixture and knead to knock out all the air bubbles and incorporate the seeds. Your dough should look something like this:

Cover bowl again and allow to rise for 45 minutes. You can now preheat your oven to 375 F (200 C).

Bake the bread:

When risen a second time, knock out the air and place dough in a prepared loaf pan (I lined mine with a generous piece of parchment paper, as I was scared it would stick to the sides).

Bake in your preheated oven for 30-40 minutes. Rotate the pan halfway through baking. You will know your loaf is done when the crust is a dark brown colour.

Remove pan from oven and allow to cool for 30 minutes (seriously, don’t touch it before then, as the loaf will still be cooking throughout this period).

Enjoy with butter and a saucy meal.