You might have guessed that I enjoy baking. However, I am not that adventurous and mainly stick to simple cakes that I know will work well. I don't often bake bread. However, when Baking Mad got in touch and asked if I would like to take part in the Allison;s Dough Tree campaign, I thought it would be a great chance for me to see how easy or difficult it would be to make homemade bread.

I had a quick look at the recipes on their site and decided that the Wholemeal Wreath reciepe looked reasonably easy for a beginner like myself.

You will need:

400g of Allisons Very Strong Wholemeal Flour
100g of Allisons Stong White Bread Flour
1 Allison's Easy Bake Yeast Sachet
1 1/2 tsp salt
50g melted butter
1 tbsp of muscavado sugar
300ml warm water

I mixed all my ingredients together and then kneeded by hand for around 15 minutes.

Next I placed the dough in a bowl and waited for it to double in size.

Shaping the wreath was actually quite easy. I made a long sausage shape about 50cm long and cut it down the middle leaving it joined at one end. I then twisted the two pieces and joined it back onto the end piece.

Next I baked it at 200C for about 35minutes. It was lovely served warm with butter.

I was really pleased with how the wreath turned out and it was really easy to make. I am now going to try some of the other recipes on the site. The Italian Stuffed Stromboli has particularly caught my eye!

Do you bake your own bread? If so what would you recommend I try next?


I was given an Allison's hamper for the purpose of this post.