Friday 30 May 2014

Irish Soda Bread with Fresh Herbs - BTTFB May 2014






















This month Carola from Sweet and That's It choose us "Back To The Future, Buddies" an Irish Soda Bread with fresh herbs, originally baked by the Bread Baking Babes in June 2011, picked by Ilva from Lucullian Delights.
I had baked soda bread before and knew it wasn't complicated and very quick! Since my friend is Irish and often mentions her mothers Soda Cake (not Bread, it's called Soda Cake!) I was keen to do it justice. Apart from the fresh herbs I added some toasted seeds and replaced some of the white flour by whole wheat flour. I made two small loaves; one for my friend and one for ourselves.
Since soda bread doesn't need any proofing time it's mixed, baked and ready to eat within 45 minutes! And as my friend says: do eat it warm, with loads of (Irish) butter!



My take on the recipe  (Find Carola's recipe here. The original recipe is from "The Ballymaloe Bread Book" by Tim Allan), makes two small loaves

350 gr very strong white bread flour
100 gr very strong whole wheat bread flour
1,5 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
35 gr half freshly chopped curly parsley and half chives
45 gr toasted mixed seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, pine nut)
415 gr buttermilk


Preheat the oven to 210C (fan).
Sift flours, salt and baking soda into a mixing bowl. (Do add the bran that stays behind in your sieve!) Add the fresh herbs and seeds to the dry ingredients. Make a well in the middle and add the buttermilk. Mix the ingredients quickly with a danish dough whisk, a wooden spoon, or your hands. Don't overwork the dough! As soon as it comes together, shape the loaves into balls (approximately 5 cm high) on a well floured worktop. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 10 mins. at 210C. Lower the temperature to 180C and bake for another 15-20 mins.



2 comments:

  1. This bread tasted so good that we definitely need to bake more of it.
    After tasting it, I had to get the book. There's plenty of interesting recipes in it.
    Thank you so much for baking along, Claartje. You made two wonderful loaves and the addition of toasted seeds sounds absolutely delicious.
    ... Finally I've found some time to go back to the round ups... (shame on me... or on the day that only has 24 hours - 23 are spent on baking, lol!)
    All the best
    Carola

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  2. Ps: sorry I forgot to mention, how much I love the picture with your dog. I wish I were in a landscape that beautiful...

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