Searching for Soda Bread!

If you are searching for a bit of soul food 

      then you could do worse than trying my recipe 

               for bread and music to get you through a winter's day...

The key ingredients for me were Irish soda bread (taking less than an hour from brain wave to taste bud) and Rodriguez playing in my ears.

Not Soda Bread again you groan.

Yes I did give you a recipe here... but today I am back with a new and more delicious version that I discovered thanks to Darina Allen's Forgotten Skills cookbook.

 Just a couple of key ingredients are needed to make this bread - baking soda and buttermilk. If you don't keep a stock of buttermilk in your fridge, as I do, you can make your own version by adding the fresh juice of half a lemon to whole milk and letting it sit for 10 minutes to curdle. But believe me, its worth finding buttermilk because it makes the soda bread just tastes so good.

Irish Soda Bread

400 g stoneground wholemeal flour

75 g rolled oats (or porridge oats) 

75g plain white flour
1teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
1 egg
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
1 teaspoon honey, treacle or brown sugar
425ml buttermilk (or soured whole milk) approx
sesame/sunflower seeds optional

Method

• Preheat oven to 200C / gas 6 / 400F
• Brush inside of loaf tin 23 x12.5 x 5cm (9 x 5 x 2inch) with oil or line with silicone paper.
• Put all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Mix well.
• Whisk the egg together with oil, honey and buttermilk in a separate bowl.
• Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour all the liquid in.
• Mix well, you may need to add more buttermilk/milk. The key is to keep the mixture soft and slightly sloppy. No kneading required.
• Pour the mix into the tin. Sprinkle with seeds on top. 
• Bake for about 50 mins - 1 hour until the bread is crusty and sounds hollow when knocked.

This bread keeps really well for several days and is so good toasted too. 

Settling down to enjoy a warm slice with some rather tasty but smelly Danish Havarti cheese, I was closely watched by my faithful Irish sous chef, Rufus.
Happily he was satisfied with the result, if not with the portion size I gave him!

After watching the movie "Searching for Sugar Man" this week, I just want to encourage you all to go see and be intrigued by the remarkable story and entranced by the fabulous music.
Let me know what you think... bread/movie/music/always great to hear from you.