High Altitude Simple Irish Brown Bread
This simple brown bread recipe is dense and hearty made with whole wheat flour, and is fantastic toasted and buttered to serve with a bowl of soup.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Digital Instant Read Thermometer
Ingredients
- 2 cups bread flour or all purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 cup whole wheat flour (preferably stone ground), fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ½ cup old fashioned rolled oats, pulsed several times in a small food processor or Ninja until coarsely ground
- ¼ cup wheat germ or wheat bran
- 1 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 ¾ cups buttermilk, room temperature
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 2 tbsp molasses (not blackstrap)
- 2 tbsp melted unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the pan
- 2 tbsp old fashioned rolled oats, for decorating
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Brush the bottom and sides of a 1 lb bread loaf pan (or a standard 9x5 inch loaf pan) with butter.
- In a bowl, whisk together the bread flour, wheat flour, ground oats, wheat germ, salt and baking soda.
- In a liquid measuring cup, whisk together the buttermilk and egg. Add the buttermilk, egg, molasses and melted butter to the dry ingredients, then stir together with a spatula just until moistened, and you have a thick, sticky batter.
- Spread the batter into the prepared pan, then use the edge of the spatula to drag a line lengthwise down the center of the batter. This gives the bread's crust a place to split open and expand as it rises. Sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons of oats over the batter.
- Bake the bread for about 55-65 minutes. After 40 minutes, turn the oven temperature down from 400 F to 350 F, and continue to bake the bread until it has a deep golden brown crust, and a digital instant read thermometer inserted into the center of the bread reads 195 F. Do not under-bake your bread, or it may be damp and doughy in the middle.
- Cool the bread in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a cooling rack. The bread should lift right out of the pan. Let cool for about an hour before slicing. Spread pieces of bread generously with softened Irish butter and a drizzle of honey, if you know what's good.
Notes
If you don't have buttermilk, pour 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar into a liquid measuring cup, then add whole milk up to the 1 3/4 cup line.
The molasses adds a subtle hint of sweetness, but this is not a sweet tasting bread. If you want a sweeter flavor, feel free to add 2 tbsp honey, pure maple syrup or dark brown sugar to the batter with the liquid ingredients.
Store leftover bread in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 3-6 months. Leftover brown bread is best toasted and slathered with butter.
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