Granary, Honey and Walnut Bread

I've somewhat neglected my blog the last few weeks but within reason. My other half decided that whilst in England we should get married so in a hurried 12 days we organised a wedding in a castle for 60 guests. It was fantastic but quite a lot of organising and I am still in my happy post wedding bubble. To make things even better my new hubby bought me a KitchenAid and so today I had to try it out. I made Honey and Walnut bread from the KitchenAid cookbook.

The recipe - Granary, Honey and Walnut Bread by KitchenAid The Cookbook

150g walnuts

1kg granary flour

1 tsp salt

7g dried yeast

2tbsp walnut oil

5tbsp honey

525ml lukewarm water

makes 2 loaves, prep 15 mins, cook 2 hrs)

The Method

Toast and roughly chop the walnuts. Mix the flour, salt and yeast in the mixer with the flat head beater on speed 2. Mix together the walnut oil, honey and  water. Change to a dough hook and gradually mix in the water mixture to the flour mixture, knead for 1 minute on speed 2. Please the dough in a greased bowl and cover with oil. Leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

Mix the walnuts into the dough with the dough hook on speed 1, continue kneading the dough for 1 minute. Add a little flour if the dough seems sticky. Divide the dough into 2 portions and place in a 1kg loaf tin and leave to rise for 1 hour, or until the dough has risen to the top of the tin.

Preheat oven to 220 degrees C and bake the loaves for 10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 200 degrees C. Bake for a further 30 minutes or until the loaves sound hollow when tapped on the base. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

This recipe was really good, the bread was tasty, dense and nutty. It was a cold day in my house and I was too impatient to let my dough rise enough, I think this would have lead to a lighter airier bread. I would also use a little more salt and a little less honey in my next attempt, and there will be a next attempt as it's pretty tasty bread.