We bought this fab farmhouse loaf tin in an antique shop this week; I love it so much, I wanted to make use of it ASAP!
I looked in my new favourite Welsh cook book for a simple, rustic loaf recipe and quickly found one for bara gwyn which translates as, ‘white loaf’. The directions – as I have found previously with this particular book – can be on the sketchy side. It states that you should bake the loaf in a ‘moderately hot’ oven for ‘1 and a half hours’.
I found that my oven cooked my loaf in about 50 minutes. A ‘moderate’ oven to me is around 175ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4. I suggest you keep an eye on your loaf and pull it out when it’s a lovely golden brown on the top and the bottom sounds hollow when you give it a tap with your knuckles.
I’ve bought fresh yeast in Morrisons – it’s available in little trays of 4 cubed portions – too much for one baking session, but it can be successfully frozen and defrosted as and when needed. I’ve also seen it for sale on Amazon and eBay. If you can’t get hold of any, I’ve included the amount of dried yeast you should use instead.
I was in two minds if I should score the top of the loaf before putting it into the oven. I decided not to, this time. I really like the natural blow out that occurred.
The notes that accompany the recipe explain:
On bread baking day, some housewives would keep a little dough and bake a small batch on the bakestone or griddle. This batch loaf would be eaten fresh for tea on that day. It was known as bara planc (Cwm Gwuan), bara mân (Bryn, Port Talbot), picen ar y lychwan (Tonyfrefail), adopting the Welsh name used for the bakestone in specific areas. Bara prwmlid was the name given to it in Pen-prysg, near Pen-coed.
Similarly, small batches would be baked on the floor of the oven. Their sizes varied and the Welsh name by which these loaves were known again differed e.g. bara bricen (Pen-gwyn), cwgen (Brynberian), torth gwaelod popty (Rhydymain), torth ar fflat y ffwrn (Ystalyfera), torth ar llawr y ffwrn (Kenfig Hill), sôts (Dowlais) and hogen (Bwlch-llan)
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Bara gwyn
Ingredients
- 530 g/ 1lb 3oz plain flour
- 1 tsp fine salt
- 1½ tsp sugar
- 285 ml warm water
- 9½ g/1⅓oz fresh yeast or 3g instant yeast / 4g active dry yeast
Instructions
- Put the salt and flour into a warm mixing bowl
- Cream the yeast and sugar and pour into a well in the centre of the flour
- Cover the yeast mixture with a little of the flour and leave in a warm place until it becomes frothy
- Proceed to mix the dough, adding the warm water gradually
- Knead well for about 10 minutes until the hands and sides of the bowl are free of dough
- Cover the bowl and leave in a warm place until the dough has doubled its original size
- Turn it out on to a floured board and mould into a loaf according to the size of the tin
- Put the loaf into the warm, greased tin and leave to rise again for another half hour
- Bake in a moderately hot oven for approximately 1 and a half hours, according to size
