Ballymaloe brown yeast bread

Preheat the oven to 230C/gas 8. Mix the flour with the salt. In a separate small bowl, mix the treacle with 140ml of the water, and crumble in the yeast. Sit the bowl for a few minutes in a warm place to allow the yeast to start to work.

Grease a 13 x 20cm loaf tin with oil. Check to see if the yeast is rising. After about 4 or 5 minutes it will have a creamy and slightly frothy appearance on top. Stir and pour it, with all the remaining water, into the flour to make a loose wet dough. The mixture should be too wet to knead.

Scrape the mixture into the greased tin and sprinkle the top with sesame seeds if you like. Put the tin in a warm place, and cover with a tea towel to prevent a skin from forming.

Just as the bread comes to the top of the tin, remove the tea towel and pop the loaf in the oven for 20 minutes. Turn the oven down to 200C/gas 6 and leave to bake for another 40-50 minutes or until it looks nicely browned and sounds hollow when tapped - I usually remove the loaf from its tin about 10 minutes before the end of cooking and put it back into the oven to crisp all round, but if you like a softer crust there's no need to do this.

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