Porridge, honey and raspberry loaves

The perfect weekend breakfast bake from Richard Bertinet's lovely book, Crumb.

Richard says: I love this bread lightly toasted the day after it’s made with fresh raspberries and goat’s milk yogurt for breakfast.

MAKES 2 MEDIUM TIN LOAVES

50g porridge oats, plus extra for dusting and coating

100g goat’s milk

40g honey

300g cool water

450g strong white bread flour

10g fine sea salt

10g fresh yeast

250g frozen raspberries

a little vegetable oil or butter, for greasing the tins

1 Bring the oats and milk to the boil in a pan. Stir in the honey, then take off the heat, scrape into a bowl and leave to cool.

2 To make the dough, transfer the porridge mixture to a food mixer, add the water, then the flour and salt and roughly break up the yeast on top on the opposite side of the bowl to the salt. Mix for 4 minutes on a slow speed, then turn up to medium for about a further 12 minutes until you have a dough that comes away cleanly from the sides of the bowl.

3 Lightly dust a work surface with oats, then turn out the dough. Also dust a clean bowl with oats. Fold the frozen raspberries gently into the dough but do not knead. then form into a ball and rest for about 45 minutes–1 hour until just under double in size.

4 Divide the dough in half using your scraper and re-shape each piece into a ball as above. Cover as before and leave to rest for a further 10 minutes.

5 Grease two medium loaf tins with oil or butter and place on a baking tray. Have some more oats in a large shallow bowl. Brush the top and sides of each ball with water and dip into the oats to coat, then put into the tins. Cover with a baking cloth or a large freezer bag and allow to prove for 45 minutes–1 hour until just under double in size.

6 Preheat the oven to 230°C. Fill a clean spray bottle with water. Using a sharp serrated-edged knife, make a cut along the length of each loaf, then put the tray into the preheated oven. Just before closing the door, quickly mist the inside generously with a water spray, pumping it for about 5–6 seconds, and avoiding spraying the loaves as much as possible.

7 Bake for about 15–20 minutes, then turn the heat down to 210°C for 10 minutes (leave the oven door very slightly ajar for the last 3–4 minutes to allow some steam to escape in order to enhance the crust) until the tops of the loaves are golden and the oats are light brown.

Extracted from Crumb by Richard Bertinet, published by Kyle Books. Photography © Jean Cazals.

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