I can't believe I never wrote this up when I originally made it! It was a huge undertaking and I was so pleased with the result, I was sure I must had posted about it. But, searching the blog, apparently not. I'll have to go back through my photos and see if I took any photos of the finished breads but, in the meantime, here's the recipe.

This one is a bit of a doozy. Not because of any unusual ingredients or techniques, but simply due to the enormous volume! Most bread recipes will make one or two 20cm by 10cm (8"x4") pan loaves (or their equivalent in rolls or other shapes. This recipe makes FIVE. It is apparently traditionally batch baked as four 10cm by 25cm loaves in a 40cm by 25cm pan. My roasting pan happens to be exactly those dimensions, so I was able to go the bath baking route. If you don't have such a pan, you may have to divide the dough and bake it separately or get creative with your baking vessels, unless you happen to have five loaf pans lying around.

Scottish Sponge Bread

From the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book

Ingredients

Sponge

• 1-2 tsp. active dry yeast
• 1/4 c. water
• 900g hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour
• 1 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 1/2 c. cold water
• 1/4 c. malt syrup (or other sweetener of your choice)

Full Dough

• 3 1/2 c. warm water
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/3 c. honey
• 1/3 c. oil (optional)
• 900g hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour
• 450g soft (plain/standard/pastry) whole wheat flour

Directions

Sponge

For a 16-18 hour sponge: Use 1 tsp. of yeast and ice water.
For a 10-12 hour sponge: Use 2 tsp. of yeast and warm water.

1. Dissolve the yeast in the water.
2. Combine the flour and salt.
3. Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the cold water, malt syrup, and yeast mixture.
4. Combine to form a slightly stiff dough.
5. Knead the sponge for 10-15 minutes. (The gluten needs to be developed enough to trap gas, but not so much that it will end up overworked when making the full dough later.)
6. Place in a bowl, cover, and let rise until it begins to recede slightly.

Full Dough

You will need a GIANT bowl for mixing up the dough. I believe I actually ended up only mixing it partially in a bowl and switched to just mixing everything together directly on the counter part-way through. You could also divide the sponge and dough ingredients and mix it up as two or three separate batches if that's easier.

1. Combine the warm water, salt, honey, and oil (if using) in your bowl.
2. Add the sponge to the liquid mixture and break it into little pieces.
3. Begin mixing in the flour. If the bowl gets too full, you can turn it out onto your work surface and continue mixing in flour there.
4. Press the dough hard to make sure everything is well blended.
5. Feel the dough and evaluate its water content. If it feels too stiff/dry/tight, mix in additional water ~1/2 c. at a time until the desired consistency is achieved.
6. Knead the dough for 20-40 minutes (depending on your technique and speed).
7. Place in a large container (I used my roasting pan), cover, and let rise for ~1 hour.
8. Knock the dough back, round it, return to its container, cover, and let rise again for 45-60 minutes.
9. Divide dough into four or five equal pieces. (Four equal pieces if you intend to batch bake in a large 40cm by 25cm (16"x10") pan, five pieces if you intend to bake in regular 20cm by 10cm (8"x4") loaf pans. You could also put two loaves together in one 20cm/8" square pan.)
10. Round each piece, cover, and let rest for ~10 minutes.
11. Shape each piece into a loaf by pressing it flat, folding into thirds, and then rolling up jelly-roll style.
12. Place shaped loaves into greased pan(s).
13. If batch baking on one large pan, butter the sides of the loaves to facilitate separation after baking.
14. Cover and let rise (30-60 minutes depending on room temperature). If you can't bake all five loaves at once, put two or three of them in the fridge to rise while the others rise at room temperature.
15. For individual loaves, bake at 190°C (375°F) for 50-60 minutes. Batch bread baked in one large pan may need as much as 90 minutes to bake through.