Celebrity square meals: Henry Goodman's sunflower and pumpkin-seed loaf

Makes four small loaves

This is a great part of a light, summery lunch, with cold meats and maybe a bean salad. It's a recipe from my wife, and she got it from her German mother. A lot of bread recipes are tricky, but not this one. I love to make things in the kitchen, but I'm not a talented cook.

1.5kg strong wholemeal flour (I use Hovis)
2 mugs of sunflower seeds
1 mug of pumpkin seeds
3tsp coarse sea salt
3tsp brown sugar
2 sachets of fast-action yeast (again, I buy the Hovis ones)
Olive oil

Into a large bowl, pour 3 mugs of warm water. Into that, dissolve the sugar and add the yeast. Stir, cover with a tea towel to keep it warm and put it to one side.

Generously coat the insides of 4 small bread tins (each about 8 inches by 4 inches) with olive oil and dust with flour. Shake to make sure it's all covered.

By now, the yeast should be ready. Mix the flour, seeds and 3tbsp of olive oil into it. Dissolve the salt in 2 mugs of water and add that too. It should come into a dough - make sure you get lots of air into it while you're mixing. It should be quite sticky.

Half fill the tins with the mixture and level with a spoon. Sprinkle over a few sunflower seeds and press them in gently. Put a tea towel over the top and leave it to rise for an hour.

Bake the loaves in a pre-heated oven at 180°C/gas mark 4 for an hour. Take out and cool on a rack. Eat one now and freeze the rest for lunches later in the summer.

Henry Goodman stars in Harold Pinter's 'The Birthday Party' at the Duchess Theatre, Catherine St, London WC2, 0870 890 1103