an irish soda bread made with a sort of maslin flour
as an irishman i love soda bread. Was brought up on the stuff. Its a great bread and easy to make. The original no knead loaf made by peasants on the hearth, in a pot.
This is a riff on the basic version using a Dan Lepard version of maslin flour which was a medieval flour - a mix of wholemeal, rye, oat and barley flours. Basically anything that was going. Its delicious. The honey and treacle arent necessary but are a good counter to the bitterness of the bread soda.
This only takes just over an hour to make and bake...
350g wholemeal
75g wholegrain rye
75g rolled oats (blitzed into a flour)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp bread soda/bicarbonate soda
1.5 tsp dark treacle
1.5 tsp honey
450g buttermilk (or a mix of yogurt and whole milk/sour milk)
50g unsalted butter
mix the dry together in one bowl and rub the butter into the flour until it disappears
mix the wet in another bowl
make a well in the dry and pour the wet into it.
mix together until incorporated (its pretty wet and sticky)
pour into a loaf tin or make a cake on a floured pan or pour into a casserole dish.
slash a deep cross on top and cook in an oven for 50 minutes @ 200 - 220 F or until crusty and has a hollow bottom
I cooked mine covered for 30 minutes in a pot and 20 minutes uncovered.
I also put rolled oats on top.
feel free to add toasted seeds into the mix or brush with melted butter afterwards...
this bread dries out quickly so best to keep under a damp tea towel until completely cool
So, where are the pictures to make us drool and instantly need to make some for ourselves?
I make a bagel called "Miller's Bagels", the premise being that the flour blend is whatever the millers sweep up off the mill floor at the end of the day. Mine is usually a blend of bread flour, whole wheat (whole meal) and whole rye, but I don't sweep it off the floor. :)
sorry i should have taken picture - it was delicious though but like all knubbly irish bread its intensely satisying and goes well with a salty butter, cheddar, etc....also so easy and quick to make...i love the idea of a millers flour...might do that as im building up a collection of near empty bags of flour in our small press
Or you can make "Bag End" bread, with whatever flours you have left. Make a soaker or porridge of last bits of flakes, cracked grains or cereals. Check for little leftover bags of dried fruit too. Go nuts! Oh yes, and nuts too. :)
Come to think of it I think I'd have a pretty good soaker: porridge, seeds, fruit. And then nuts, flours, etc. I might just do that :)
It sounded good and I could remember making soda bread with a friend 40 years ago. First I confirmed that treacle is what we call molasses. Then I decided that 200 degrees farenheit seemed a little low so what mutantspace probably meant was 200 centigrade, so I set the oven for 425 f. I halved the recipe because I didn't have much buttermilk, and in the end I used 100 g of buttermilk and 125 g of ale. As usual when I halve a recipe I forgot on one ingredient, so it got a full 50 g of butter. Oh, also I had never heard the term "blitzed" used that way but figured it meant ground so I worked the oats in a mortar and pestle until they were flour-like. And one more thing, I added about 2 g of flax seed meal.
I'm always looking for ways to use more whole grains. My daily bread is a 50/50 mix of bread flour and whole grains, but I make banana bread with 100 percent whole wheat. So I had high hopes for this 100 percent whole grain bread, and they were met - this is delicious bread. I'll make it again. Thanks, mutantspace, for the recipe.
youre very welcome and apologies for the difference in names and temperature.....on this side of the pond we're on treacle and centigrade :) traditionally in Ireland we make small holes in the crust before baking to let the fairies out...