Warren Carr set up his Highs & Loaves breadmaking classes to share his passion for real bread and to show people how easy it is to bake fresh nutritious loaves at home. He runs beginners’ classes all year round, and during October, November and December also offers special classes making hearty winter loaves, a Christmas stollen and festive decorations made out of bread dough, ideal for personalised gifts.

Fall back in love with bread and jam! Here’s an easy to make, wonderfully tasty and satisfying traditional loaf – as good for you today as it’s always been!

Ingredients

• 200g wholemeal flour
• 50g strong white flour
• 10g dried baker’s yeast
• 5g salt
• 25g soft unsalted butter
• 165ml water

These quantities make a good sized standard sized loaf. To make more loaves, simply multiply up the quantities pro-rata by 2, 3 or 4 etc, and after the first proving, divide the dough into 2, 3 or 4 equal pieces as appropriate when you shape it up for the second proving.

Put all the dry ingredients into a bowl and give them a quick finger mix. Add the softened butter then the water, and mix by hand until you have a sticky dough. Don’t add any extra flour or water! Your aim is to lift the dough out of the bowl as one mass, leaving a completely clean bowl.

Knead the dough on your work surface for 5-8 minutes until it is smooth and supple.

Tuck the dough in on itself to form a tight ball and put it back in your bowl, covered with a clean tea towel. Leave it to prove for 1-1.5 hours.

Take the dough out of the bowl and gently tuck the dough in on itself again to form a ball. 

Place the ball on a baking tray, and slash it with a sharp knife. You can also use a baking tin to get that traditional loaf look. In this case, work your dough ball into an oval shape before placing it in the tin. 

Leave the dough uncovered to prove again 1-1.5 hours, then bake in a pre-heated oven (Fan assisted 200 C; Normal oven 220 C/425 F; Gas mark 7)for 20-25 minutes, until it has a good colour on it.

Eat it buttered with a good dollop of (preferably) homemade jam. Bread as it used to be!