Saturday 16 January 2010

seeded irish brown soda bread

We usually make this delicious bread on a Saturday and once its cool we pop it on a board with a bread knife and pop the butter dish nearby. By the time we finish pottering around with whatever it is that eats a Saturday morning and afternoon up, the bread has usually been eaten up too! It is just irresistible when lovely and fresh so it doesn't stand much chance of lasting long. In fact, once I made it very late one night before I headed off on a work trip the next morning. I thought I'd make it as a taste of Ireland for an American colleague. So, I proudly left it to cool while I headed off to finish packing, only to come back and find Martin had devoured half of it!! I'm sure he knew it wasn't for him but couldn't help himself!

SEEDED IRISH BROWN SODA BREAD

Makes 1 loaf

200g wholemeal flour
200g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
25g pumpkin seeds
25g sunflower seeds
1 tbsp linseeds
300ml buttermilk
1 tbsp treacle
1 tbsp sunflower oil

Line a 1Lb loaf tin with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 200C (400F, Gas Mark 6).

Place the wholemeal flour into a large bowl and sift the plain flour and bicarbonate of soda over. Add the salt and stir almost all of the pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and linseeds through, reserving a small handful for the topping.

Make a well in the centre and pour the buttermilk, treacle and sunflower oil in. Stir the mixture together until well blended, adding a little more buttermilk if necessary to give a soft dropping consistency.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, spread it out with the back of a spoon and sprinkle the reserved seeds evenly over.

Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes until well risen and crisp and deep golden on top. A skewer should come out clean when poked through to the middle of the loaf. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before lifting out and leaving to cool completely.

Cut into slices and spread with butter to serve or other favourite topping like cheese, jam or honey. Store for a couple of days in an airtight container. This is also delicious when toasted and perfect as an accompaniment to soups and salads.

13 comments:

Ciara Brehony said...

Oh... my favourite...

michelle b @ every little thing inspired said...

thanks for the recipe, am dying to make this! looks so much more interesting than my mom's plain soda bread. at first i thought it was wheaten?!

but, could you please tell me what "treacle" is?

thanks!

marty, sharon and pearl said...

hey miss B....actually this is the same as wheaten bread...confusingly people call it various things - in fact really in ireland we just call it brown bread but because there is a standard brown sliced loaf you can buy readily in the UK and ireland, people in the UK think thats what we're on about so they specifically call this one traditional irish soda bread or wheaten bread (but here we know brown bread most likely means the traditional one anyhow). to add to the confusion, 'soda bread' is actually white (see my recent post on making this) so we distinguish the brown one with the words brown or wheaten....confused yet?! so basically it changes to wheaten or brown when it is made with wholemeal or wholewheat flour as well as plain white flour.

so onto the treacle issue - its really a dark mollases....treacle is a british product produced by tate and lyle (who also produce the amazing golden syrup, yum yum). i think your dark kalo syrup might be a bit sweet but might be worth a try if you cant get mollases - but that should really be easily available in health food stores....its a very thick, dark and bitter syrup which gives the bread its dark colour and adds to the flavour.

let me know how you get on anyhow!
sx

michelle b @ every little thing inspired said...

thanks sharon...
i will see how i do!

Designermmg said...

love it am soooooo trying this one out... th blue berry pies went down a storm. thanks. marie

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Sadhbh @ Where Wishes Come From said...

I'm loving all this regular blogging! Looks like your new kitchen is seriously inspiring you. I'm definitely going to try some of your recipes. S

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Unknown said...

Its a very thick, dark and bitter syrup which gives the bread its dark colour and adds to the flavour.
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Unknown said...

Thanks for posting this recipe!! It’s an excellent bread I’ve been making since 1973 – when I found Myrtle Allen’s recipe in Beard On Bread. Beard’s version doesn’t have any white flour and more salt(too much salt really). I sometimes use honey instead of molasses if that’s what I have on hand.
I’m glad more people will be able to try this recipe!

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