Brown Bread   

Ingredients: 1 cup sifted flour
1 cup corn meal
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup molasses
2 cups buttermilk or soured milk
1 cup seedless raisins, if desired
Directions:
Sift flour once, measure, add soda and salt and sift again. Add corn meal and whole wheat flour and blend. Add molasses and buttermilk and stir until the dry ingredients are moistened. Add the raisins and pour into well-greased molds, filling them not more than 2/3 full (Use No. 2 cans for a well-proportioned slice.) Cover with 2 thicknesses of heavy waxed paper or metal foil and steam for 2 hours. Serve piping hot. For larger molds, allow 3 full hours for steaming.
Makes 4 to 5 small molds
Bread may be wrapped in moisture-vapor-proof wrapping, stored in the freezer, reheated in a double boiler, if desired. If no steamer is available, set molds in a shallow pan of hot water and bake in a 275-degree F. oven for thee required length of time.

How to make wholemeal bread using fresh baker’s yeast.

Ingredients
8 oz strong brown flour
8 oz strong white flour
4  oz stoneground wholewheat flour
14 fl oz warm water
1 oz baker’s yeast
1 tbsp sugar or honey or molasses
1 tsp salt

Method
Place the yeast in the warm water with the sugar. When it has dissolved either knead it into the flour (with the salt added to it) by hand or – and this is that cheat I was telling you about - stick it in the bread machine to knead or do it with the dough hook on a food processor. When the dough is thoroughly smooth and does not stick to your hands place it in a bowl and put it somewhere warm covered with cling film for a tea towel. OR (and this is the second cheat) put it in the fridge to rise overnight or while you’re out at work. The cold temperature in the fridge won’t stop the yeast doing it’s thing, it will merely slow it down. The next stage – whether you’re doing it after one hour of normal rising or 8 or so hours of fridge rising – it to knock the dough back, shape it into a loaf or rolls and allow it to rise again for another 20 mins, again somewhere nice and warm. Bake at gas mark 4 for 40 mins for a loaf and 25 mins for rolls. I always like to turn them halfway through cooking so they get a nice undercrust. It may seem like a hassle but good artisan bread costs a bomb and it really is not that hard to make your own.

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