Please note I would not recommend this bread for absolute beginners as there are a few different flours involved. I would still class myself as a relative beginner so don’t think this needs a high skill level. At least try a standard white loaf before trying this one as that will give you the experience of seeing gluten formation.

Ingredients

Dry

• 150g Chapati Atta Flour (Shipton do a nice organic one)
• 150g Wholemeal Spelt Flour
• 100g Rye Flour
• 150g Strong White Flour (I like Shipton Finest No1)
• 8g Dry Instant Yeast (I like Dove Farm’s Instant yeast best)
• 8g Sugar (I like to use golden caster or light brown sugar)
• 8g Salt
• Extra flour for dusting

Wet

• 2 tbsp Maple Syrup (Can use golden syrup or any liquid honey)
• 400ml lukewarm water (mix of 1/3 boiled water from kettle and 2/3 tap water, may need to adjust the ratio in winter as tap water colder then)
• Extra 50ml lukewarm water on standby
• 40g washed and chopped basil leaves
• 1tbsp Olive Oil
• Extra oil for coating tin, bowl and glazing bread

Optional
• 1 tbsp Sesame seeds

Other
• Kenwood Chef with dough hook or something similar (eg. a good pair of hands)
• Square 6x6 inch tin with a 2.5 inch depth (or can use a tray or any other tin of similar volume)
• Shower Cap or damp tea towel

Method

1) Put all the dry ingredients in your Kenwood chef and give a quick stir
2) Add all the wet ingredients and put Kenwood chef on lowest setting for 10 minutes to knead dough. First time you make this bread, check five minutes in, and if dough does not seem wet enough gradually add the extra lukewarm water until you think this is wet enough.
3) Once ten minutes are up, take out and do a stretch test to see if gluten has formed. If not, knead a little longer.
4) Knead the dough by hand a 3-4 times and coat the inside of the Kenwood Chef bowl with a couple of drops of oil, before putting dough back in Kenwood Chef bowl, and place shower cap on top. Leave to double in size in the warmest part of your house. On an average summers day this takes about 90 minutes.
5) Coat the inside of the tin you are using with oil and dust with flour to prevent bread from sticking. Make sure you get the sides of the tin as well.
6) Once dough has doubled in size, knock back and do a final quick knead by hand. Split dough into 9 equal size parts and shape into 9 balls.
7) Place the 9 balls in a 3 x 3 grid format in the tin (or on the tray). If using a round tin, do 6 balls on the outside and 3 balls on the inside.
8) Optional: Sprinkle with Sesame seeds
9) Leave dough to double for final prove and cover with shower cap. This should take about 90 minutes on average summers day
10) Preheat oven to 200 degrees
11) Place in middle of oven for best results (don’t forget to take off the shower cap as I nearly did this once) for 30-40 minutes.
12) Tap bread to make sure that it is done
13) Take out of tin and drizzle with olive oil to get glazed look.
14) Eat and share with your friends.

Other Notes:
• Doubling time may differ in colder weather.
• If kneading by hand it may take longer for gluten to form.