Bread!

[digitalraven]

Crap, I forgot all about this challenge. OTOH, I've not really been well enough to do anything about it. So in lieu of anything new, have a recipe for wheaten bread. This is the kind of dark, sweet, rich bread that my wife remembers growing up with in Norn Iron. As a soda bread, you don't have to waste time kneading, proving, kneading again, rising... that's the one thing I don't like about making most breads. Sodding get on with it. Instead, the baking soda reacts with the lactic acid to produce bubbles of CO₂. Effectively, soda bread says "bugger working, I can let chemistry do that while I watch cartoons on my phone", a sentiment that I share in so much of life.

1 tbsp of treacle gives a more traditional colour/flavour, two is a bit more extravagant but the results are worth it.

Equipment

• Mixing bowl
• Wooden spoon
• Baking sheet

Ingredients

• 150g plain flour
• 150g wholemeal flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1½ tsp salt
• 250ml buttermilk (or natural yoghurt)
• 1-2 tbsp black treacle

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170° (190° if you don’t have a fan oven, but seriously, are you cooking this in the seventies?)
2. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the buttermilk and treacle to the well.
3. Stir the buttermilk and treacle until incorporated, then work in the flour. Use a wooden spoon for as long as you can, then carry on with well-floured hands. You may want to use disposable gloves, as the dough is so adhesive some supervillains would use it as a weapon of choice. Stop when it’s come together as a sticky ball, it doesn’t need kneaded.
4. Stick some baking paper on a baking tray and dust it with flour. Place dough on sheet, give it a pat down to spread it out some, then cut a large cross on the top with a knife.
5. Bake for 40-45 minutes.

Comments

[miss_s_b]

May try this with one of the less glutenny flours to see how it works for Mat...

[digitalraven]

Soda breads don't need a lot of gluten, so it should work out. You may want to omit the treacle, depending on how light the flour you go for is.

[miss_s_b]

Yay for experimentation! For science!