First-taste brown bread recipe

Do your children love white bread but won't go near the brown stuff? This recipe is a great way to ease your kids into a new world of bread and the good news is they'll love it just as much as their usual white loaf. Brown bread contains wholegrain, which is great for digestion and warding off illnesses. This bread recipe uses a small amount of wholegrain flour, plus some honey and linseeds to make it that bit sweeter. It also contains much less salt than shop-bought bread, which is great if you're trying to keep on top of the salt intake in your home. This bread is even suitable for 6-month-old plus babies when they're starting to try finger foods. Just make sure you leave out the honey.

Ingredients

• 400g strong white bread flour
• 100g wholegrain bread flour
• 7g dried yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 300ml warm water
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp linseeds
• 1 tsp olive oil

Method

1. Pour the flour, yeast and salt into the bowl of your standard mixer and attach the dough hook.
2. Set to a low speed and start to add the warm water. Reserve the last 50ml. Let this combine for a minute or two before adding the butter, honey and linseeds.
3. Keep the mixer going. You're looking for a slightly sticky dough so at this point you may need to add more of the warm water. Keep on mixing for another 10 minutes until the dough is soft, elastic and slightly sticky.
4. Gather the dough in your hand and put the oil in the bowl you've just been using. Shape the dough into a ball and use that to coat the oil around the bowl and the dough. This will stop it sticking when it rises. Cover and leave in a warm place for an hour until it has doubled in size.
5. Use your fists to knock back the air out of the dough for a minute or so. Preheat the oven to 220°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6. Shape the dough into a rough rectangle and drop into a non-stick loaf tin. Cover again and leave in a warm place for roughly 45 minutes until it has doubled in size.
6. Sprinkle the top of the loaf with a little flour and carefully place in the middle of the oven, being careful not to knock out any of the air. Bake for 35 minutes until your loaf is risen and golden brown.
7. Turn the loaf out and tap the bottom to see if it sounds hollow. If it does it's ready. Leave to cool for 30 minutes before slicing.