Serves: 6
Preparation time: 2 hours
Cooking time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Total time: 3 hours 10 minutes
Diets: gluten free, dairy free, vegan, vegetarian, soy free, pescatarian, nut-free

There’s something incredibly rewarding about making your own bread, and this loaf is a combination of teff, buckwheat and brown rice flour, which offers a plethora of nutritional benefits.

Teff is a small, gluten-free grain that has a variety of benefits to our health. First, it is incredibly high in fibre (you can find 15.4g fibre in one cup, which is over half of our recommended daily 30g intake).

Teff is a species of love grass which comes native to Ethiopia, and it’s used to make the famous injera bread. It’s also high in protein, iron, manganese and calcium. If you suffer with a gluten sensitivity or coeliac disease, teff can make a great gluten-free alternative in baking. The fibre content is great for feeding our microbiome (those beneficial bacteria that live within the digestive tract) and also provides bulk to our stools, creating much healthier bowel movements.

Buckwheat is a complete source of plant-based protein and offers all of the amino acids; it’s also rich in manganese and resistant starch.

I’m such a fan of scrambling my morning eggs and serving them on this fresh toasted bread, knowing exactly where the ingredients have come from and that I’ve baked it all myself.

Having that connection with food is so powerful. I hope you all enjoy this recipe!

INGREDIENTS

• 20g yeast
• 2 tsp salt
• 700ml cold water
• 1.5 tbsp honey (if you are vegan use maple syrup)
• 1 egg white (if you are vegan, omit this ingredient)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 200g teff flour
• 100g brown rice flour
• 100g buckwheat flakes (or use buckwheat flour if you don’t have flakes)
• 30g psyllium husk
• 55g corn starch

METHOD

1. Take a large bowl and add in the yeast, cold water, salt, olive oil and honey. Mix together and whisk in the egg white.
2. Slowly add the teff flour, brown rice flour, buckwheat flakes and corn starch and whisk together into a smooth consistency that is free of any lumps.
3. Add in the psyllium husk and quickly whisk everything together into a smooth dough.
4. Cover the bowl and leave to stand at room temperature for 90 minutes so that the dough rises.
5. After 90 minutes, dust a clean kitchen surface with some flour (I use brown rice flour). Take your dough and mould into a preferred shape. I like to mould mine into a “small but tall” rectangular shape to try and avoid the bread being too flat when it bakes – it tends to level out into an oval shape in the oven as a result.
6. Place the bread onto a baking tray with greaseproof paper and cover with a tea towel for an additional 30 minutes. Meanwhile, start preheating your oven to 225 degrees Celsius.
7. After 30 minutes is up, take a separate baking tray and fill it with cold water. Place at the bottom of the oven. This will form steam which will help the bread to bake well.
8. Now place your baking tray with the bread dough in the oven and bake for about 70 minutes. Keep monitoring it in the oven to see how it is rising and bake for slightly longer if necessary.
9. Once ready, take the bread out of the oven and place on a metal rack to cool down for at least 30 minutes. Cut with a bread knife into even slice and enjoy toasted, as a sandwich or with a delicious soup!