Cholesterol-busting wholemeal loaf

Well, all you breadniks out there, here’s a loaf designed to help you lower cholesterol and generally give your liver a break. Like so many of my recent efforts, it’s based on my mate, Rich Baldry’s, original wholemeal oaten loaf. 

You’ll need the following for a 750-ish gram loaf: 

* 325mls of tepid tap water

* 1 ½ tbspns of olive oil (which also plays a part in the liver-fixing process)

* 300gms of wholemeal flour

* 150gms of plain white flour

* 1 ½ tbspns of milk powder

* 1 tbspn of sugar (I’ve used white this time)

* 1 tbspn of linseed/flax seeds

* 1 tbspn of buckwheat

* 1 tbspn of rolled oats

* 1 tspn of improver

* 1 ½ tspns of salt

* 1 ¾ tspns of dry yeast

 As with all my loaves lately, I add the water and oil together first, then combine all the dry ingredients in the same bowl (which I weigh the flour in). Once I’ve added all this to Breville Bev’s baking pan, I add the yeast. 

I then set Bev on her wholemeal cycle (about 3hrs 40mins), for a medium crust. 

Yummo! Sure beats the piss-poor commercial ‘sourdough’ loaf we bought last night as a stop-gap! And this one’s sweeter than previous wholemeal loaves – no doubt due to the linseed and plain flour.

The texture is fairly open, and the crust is . . . well, crusty. There are just enough seeds and buckwheat to provide pleasant crunch, but not enough to make this an excuse for a bird-feeder seed stick

A real stunner you’d be proud to take home to Mum!