Honeyed Wheaten Bread with Jumbled Nuts, Seeds and Fruit

Part of my January #givingupstockingup challenge is not to buy food if I've got the ingredients to make it myself. That applies to bread so I was keen to try Sue Quinn's Honeyed Wheaten Bread from her excellent new book on using up leftovers, Second Helpings. It also, as she points out, uses up half-used packets of nuts, seeds and dried fruit, which you may have in stock after Christmas.

"This loaf doesn’t care if nuts are soft and past their prime, or whether you add particular seeds or dried fruit" Sue writes. "Tumble in what’s lurking in your store cupboard and you’ll be rewarded with a highly moreish loaf that’s heavenly spread thickly with good salty butter and/or golden syrup or served with cheese."

Leftovers: nuts, seeds, dried fruit

Serves 8–10

Preparation: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 45–50 minutes

60g (1⁄4 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes, plus extra for greasing

180g (scant 11⁄2 cups) wholemeal (whole wheat) flour

180g (scant 11⁄2 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour

30g (scant 1⁄4 cup) porridge oats (rolled oats), plus extra for scattering on top

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

1⁄4 tsp fine sea salt

40g (11⁄2oz) mixed nuts, lightly toasted and roughly chopped

40g (11⁄2oz) mixed seeds

80g (23⁄4oz) mixed dried fruit, roughly chopped

60g (about 1⁄4 cup) runny honey

250g (11⁄4 cups) Greek yoghurt, crème fraîche or soured cream (or a mixture)

5 Tbsp milk, or as much as needed

Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/Gas mark 4. Grease a loaf tin (loaf pan) roughly 23 x 13 x 7cm (8 cups) and line the long sides and base with one large sheet of baking paper that overhangs the sides.

In a large bowl, combine the flours, oats, bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) and salt by stirring with a fork. Rub the cubed butter into the flour mixture with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the nuts, seeds and dried fruit and mix to evenly distribute – hands work best for this.

Mix the honey into the yoghurt, then stir into the dry mixture. Gradually add the milk, mixing with your hands between each addition, to make a sticky dough. Scrape the dough into the prepared tin and smooth the top with the back of a wet spoon, pushing it into the corners.

Scatter over a small handful of oats. Bake for 45–50 minutes, or until risen and golden, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes, then lift out onto a wire rack to cool, using the baking paper as handles.

Try ...

Using leftover porridge (oatmeal) instead of uncooked oats. Omit the 30g (scant 1⁄4 cup) oats, reduce the yoghurt to 200g (1 cup) and stir in 60g (about 1⁄2 cup) cold porridge.

Extracted from Second Helpings by Sue Quinn published by Quadrille at £18.99. Photo by Facundo Bustamante