I've not posted about bread making for a few days but I have been experimenting in the background.
In earlier posts I mentioned that I've cut back on dairy products so am not using buttermilk in soda bread. Instead I've been using a combination of non-dairy 'milk' (for me 'coconut milk', which in fact is mainly rice!) and acid (in my case white wine vinegar). I've been very happy with the results.
Way back at post #140 Silver sprinter (Gerry) asked whether the resulting loaves taste of coconut - which they don't.
Well, that got me thinking. What is the 'coconut milk' bringing to the party, and why am I using it? It seems to me that in the days of yesteryear soda bread was a great way to use up buttermilk (the liquid left over from churning cultured cream or perhaps sour milk). Nowadays it's a liquid purpose-made for the consumer.
To my mind buttermilk doesn't taste of much but does contribute the essential acid that reacts with the bicarbonate of soda in soda bread recipes to generate gas bubbles, which in turn causes the loaf to rise.
Putting all this together (buttermilk doesn't taste of much, 'coconut milk' doesn't taste of much, soda bread recipes need acid), I decided to try a soda bread recipe with plain water and acid instead of buttermilk.
The result was indistinguishable in appearance from any other soda loaf I've made:
........and tasted great.
To summarise, the basic recipe I now use is:
Dry Ingredients:
200g plain white flour
150g plain wholemeal flour
50g oats
1 teaspoon salt
1½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
Wet Ingredients:
375ml water
1½ tablespoon white wine vinegar
Method:
1. Mix the dry ingredients thoroughly and, separately, mix the wet ingredients together.
2. Mix the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients together.
3. Tip the wet mixture into a greased 1lb loaf tin.
4. Bake at 210°C for about 35 minutes, scoring the top of the loaf after about 10 minutes baking and again after about 20 minutes baking.
5. Remove from loaf tin and place on a wire rack to cool.
I sometimes add 'fillings' to this basic recipe.
I've made savoury loaves such as Marmite and herb:
........and mustard:
And sweet loaves such as dried fruit, glacé cherry and walnut:
.......and chocolate chip and glacé cherry (with golden syrup dribbled into the top while the loaf was still hot out of the oven). This one is definitely a favourite with the Grandsprogs:
There were other variants but I'm confident that you've got the idea!
Soda bread is great still warm but I've also found that cold plain soda bread is simply delicious toasted and slathered with 'butter'. I'm probably the last person on the planet who's discovered that!
So now I feel like getting back to a sourdough bake.
Colin
