Orkney Bere-Barley with Cotswold Eight Grain Bread

Ingredients

400g Cotswold Eight Grain Flour
50g Orkney Bere-Barley Flour (fine)
50g Orkney Bere-Barley Meal (medium) & extra for coating the dough
7.5g yeast (fresh or dried)
7.5g sugar (or preferably none if you prove for a bit longer)
10g lard or olive oil
5g salt
350g (or 350 ml) water – or slightly less, add carefully

Background

The Bere-Barley from Orkney has been a bit of a discovery for me this year. It’s an ancient cereal which was spread across Europe in Neolithic times by the first farmers, and is still harvested nowadays in Orkney and stone-ground nearby at the island’s water-powered Barony Mill. Since ancient times it’s been used to make everything from nutritious biscuits and bread to the malt for beer and whiskey. It blends beautifully with the Cotswolds Eight Grain flour. This bread is different, delicious and very healthy.

It’s worth trying the new Matthews Heritage Bibury Barley Flour in its place and I’m looking forward to trying that as soon as I can get my hands on some!

Method

Mix and knead the dough in the usual way, making sure to keep the salt away from the yeast until all is mixed. Add the water with care for a good consistency – the Bere-Barley alters the texture of the bread, and you may find you need slightly less water than you’d expect. The bere-barley also needs less salt than normal bread flour.

Use a large well-greased bread tin or baking tray. Rolling the dough to coat it in a little of the coarser bere-barley meal makes a satisfyingly crunchy crust before you set the dough in the tin or on the baking tray to rise.

Leave to prove for about an hour then knock back and leave to prove again for another 40 minutes.

Set the oven to warm to 200 degrees C (fan)

When the bread has risen to double the original size, bake for approximately 50 mins.

Thanks to Steven Battersby for sending in this delicious recipe.

Milling Britain’s finest flour for over 100 years

With a milling legacy spanning eight generations, Matthews Cotswold Flour is one of the UK’s oldest family-run flour mills. Trading grain and milling flour in the heart of the Cotswolds since the 1800s, we believe passionately that our local partnerships, traditional methods and premium grains make for better baking.

We are proud to offer premium quality Organic and Stoneground Wholegrain flour, using grain from local farmers and time-honoured milling techniques.

The Matthews Cotswold Flour story began when the original FWP Matthews built a mill on the river Evenlode in 1912. You’ll find us working here to this day, overlooking the picturesque Cotswold village of Shipton-Under-Wychwood.