Brown Soda Bread

This Basic Brown Soda Bread is made with buttermilk from the buttermilk plant I started a few days ago.

This simple, wholesome loaf is delicious eaten fresh with butter, cheese or with a bowl of homemade soup.

Basic Brown Soda Bread Recipe
Makes: 1 large loaf
From The Best of Irish Breads and Baking by Georgina Campbell.

Ingredients:

• 1 1b/450g/4 cups coarse wholemeal (whole-wheat) flour
• 6 oz/175g/11/2 cups plain white (all-purpose) flour
• 1 rounded tsp/1 1/4 US tsp bread (baking) soda
• 1 tsp/1 1/2 US teaspoon salt
• 3/4 pint/450 ml/2 cups buttermilk (approx.)

Directions:

Preheat a hot oven, 400°F/200°C/gas 6. Mix the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Stir in enough buttermilk to make a fairly soft dough.

Turn onto a work surface dusted with wholemeal (whole wheat) flour and knead lightly until smooth underneath.




Form into a circle, about 1 1/2"/4 cm thick, and put onto a baking sheet. Mark a deep cross in the top with a floured knife. I decided to bake my in a casserole dish to give it a better shape.




Bake for about 45 minutes, until the bread is browned and sounds hollow when tapped on the base. I baked the bread with the lid on for about 30 minutes, then baked it without the lid for the last 10 minutes or so.

Cool on wire rack.  You might want to wrap it in a clean tea/dish towel to keep the crust soft.

This bread tastes good warmed with butter.




Thanks for visiting The Bread Experience Blog.

Happy Baking!
Cathy