Walnut Bread Recipe

Try our tasty Walnut Bread Recipe. In an occasional series, kitchens for serious cooks, we’re creating some mouth-watering exclusive recipes. Love the appetising aroma of freshly baked bread in your beautiful bespoke kitchen? Even better, make an artisan loaf such as our delicious Walnut Bread.

Spend a satisfying afternoon baking your own Walnut bread in your stylish Roundhouse made to measure kitchen. Follow this flavoursome recipe for artisan Walnut Bread, created by our very own Roundhouse home economist.

Our recipes include some great tips for using your upscale appliances, such as combination steam ovens and warming drawers from manufacturers, Miele, Gaggenau and Siemens.

Ingredients  

450g seeded wholemeal bread flour, or strong wholemeal flour

200g strong white bread flour

2 tbsp light brown sugar

1 ½ tsp fine salt

100g walnut pieces

1 x sachet (7g) Easy-blend dried yeast

3 tbsp walnut or olive oil

350-375ml lukewarm water

Method steps 1-8

Method

Set your oven or combi oven on the ‘Dough Proving’ setting if you have one, or preheat your warming drawer on the lowest setting (this is about 35-40°C and will help to speed up proving). If you have neither, preheat the Fan oven at around 35°C as will have a similar effect.

  1. Combine the flours, sugar, salt and walnut pieces together in a large mixing bowl.
  2. Sprinkle over the yeast evenly, then gently run your fingers through the dry ingredients to disperse the yeast throughout.
  3. Now make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, and pour in the oil and most of the water. Using a cutlery knife, mix the ingredients in the centre, pulling the dry ingredients in to the well to form a dough. Use your hands once the mixture is no longer too messy. You want the dough to be soft, with no dry floury patches, but not too wet either – you will have to judge whether you need all of the water as different flours absorb water differently.
  4. Tip the dough ball on to a lightly oiled work surface and knead for about 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.
  5. Lightly oil a large bowl, and place the ball of dough inside, covering with a damp tea towel or piece of oiled cling film. Place in the warming drawer or oven for about 35-45 minutes, until the dough has nicely risen to almost double in size.
  6. When this has happened, take the dough out and ‘knock back’ by lightly placing your fist into the centre of the dough and giving it a few seconds of kneading to get rid of most of the air.
  7. Dust a baking tray with flour and shape your dough into an oval or a circle – this is a free-form loaf, so be creative! Dust the top of your Walnut Bread with flour, then using a very sharp knife or a pair of scissors, score the top – this is where a baker would have his own ‘signature’ mark…
  8. Cover the top loosely with oiled cling film so it doesn’t stick. Place back into the warming drawer or oven for a further 30-40 minutes, until the dough has risen nicely again.
  9. Now preheat the oven on Fan, 200°C. Remove the cling film, and place the loaf in the oven, reducing the temperature to 180°C after ten minutes. Bake for 40-50 minutes in total, or until the Walnut bread is golden brown on top and sounds hollow when tapped on the base.
  10. Enjoy freshly baked and still warm Walnut Bread, or toasted for extra nuttiness – this is delicious with Roquefort cheese and pickled pears.

**If you have a Siemens oven with pulseSteam, in your Roundhouse bespoke kitchen, try using 4D Hot Air with Medium steam intensity to lock in the moisture from the dough and give you a good crust. Use the same oven temperatures as stated in the main recipe**

**If you have a Miele oven with the Moisture Plus function, in your custom made kitchen, use 2 bursts of moisture and introduce one as you put the dough in, and the other 20 minutes later. Use the same oven temperatures as stated in the main recipe**

**If you have a Combination Steam oven in your luxury kitchen, this is a fantastic way to bake bread:

  • For Siemens appliances, select ‘Hot Air + Steam’, using the temperatures and timings stated in the main recipe.
  • For Gaggenau appliances , use Hot Air 200°C, 30% humidity for 30 minutes, using ‘misting’ a couple of times, and then reduce the temperature to 180°C and the humidity down to 0% for the remaining 15-20 minutes.
  • For Miele appliances, select Combination cooking, Fan Plus, 200°C and 60% moisture for 30 minutes, and then reduce the temperature to 180°C and the humidity down to 0% for the remaining 15-20 minutes.

Top Tip

A Combination Steam oven is a great way of regenerating bread which is a few days old, by using the ‘Reheat’ or ‘Regenerate’ function