For the ultimate winter warmer enjoy this loaf straight from the oven with a scrumptious bowl of comforting soup. It’s ideal served with a hearty chicken soup such as Baxters Favourites Chicken Broth. This recipe makes one loaf that will serve four.
There’s nothing more domestic goddess/godly than pulling a freshly baked loaf from the oven to accompany a simple mid-week meal. But honestly, this looks a million times more impressive than it really is. With no proving time and minimal kneading, soda bread is much simpler than most bread to make. The difference here from a regular loaf is that soda bread uses bicarbonate of soda (as opposed to yeast) as the raising agent. So just as when it’s used in cakes it doesn’t require time proving in order to activate.
The addition of cheese and fresh chives elevate this simple bread to something more special. It’s ideal for soup dipping, but we also love using it as a great canapé base. By slicing it and cutting bite-sized chunks and topping it with a spiral of smoked salmon or a smidge of pate you can create a unique canapé in minutes.
INGREDIENTS
- 200g natural yoghurt
- 80ml Guinness or another stout
- 230g plain flour
- 100g plain wholemeal flour
- 1/4tsp sea salt
- 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1tbsp pumpkin seeds, plus extra for the top
- A handful of chives, snipped into cm lengths
- 60g leftover cheese, grated or crumbled we used a mixture of Colston Bassett and Cheddar
METHOD
- Heat the oven to 200C/Gas 6. In a jug combine the yoghurt and stout. Put the flours, salt, bicarbonate of soda, seeds, chives and three quarters of the cheese in a bowl and add the yoghurt mixture. Mix until just combined, don’t worry about floury patches at this stage. Set aside for about 10 mins, doing this will make the dough more workable.
- Knead the dough until smooth, it will be quite sticky. With floury hands shape the sticky dough into a ball and place onto a well-floured baking tray. Flatten down the top to create a thick disk and sprinkle over the remaining cheese and seeds. Use the side of a floured wooden spoon to press a deep cross into the top of the loaf. Bake for 30 mins. Transfer to a wire rack to cook.
