Mary Rowley's Irish brown bread recipe

This is the best brown recipe ever - of course it's my mother's. The recipe here is for a two pound loaf tin. And it freezes well, so it's best to double the batch and make two batches at a time. A double batch will fit in a standard food mixer.

13 oz wholewheat flour

3 oz plain or bread flour

a handful of bran

a handful of wheatgerm

a handful of oatmeal

1 tsp sugar or honey (you can use treacle to for a darker loaf)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 egg

2 tbs of oil or melted butter

15 fluid oz buttermilk (this is English fluid oz - and is about 425 mls)

Mix all the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl, sifting the baking soda into the plain flour.

Mix the wet ingredients together and add to the dry. You might need to add a little more buttermilk in order to get the consistency right. The mix should be loose and wet, not as solid as a dough, and not as liquid as a batter.

Pour the mix into a oiled and floured loaf tin or cast iron pot. The pans should be heated in the oven before.

Bake at 180 C or 35o F for about an hour or so until a skewer comes out clean. The loaf should sound hollow when tapped.