Images: Charlotte Griffiths
Alex Rushmer shares a recipe for a beery bread that’s quick and simple to make
Soda bread is a real favourite of mine. It’s not only super to eat fresh out of the oven, with plenty of cold butter, but it is also the fastest-raised bread you can possibly make. Instead of relying on yeast – which can take hours to work – soda bread creates a rise in just a few minutes and doesn’t need proving.
Traditionally, buttermilk provides all the necessary acid to react with the bicarbonate of soda, but here I’ve added ale and the results are even better, bringing a lovely yeasty flavour to the dish that is normally absent in soda bread.
Ingredients
500g strong white bread flour
330ml ale
70ml kefir, yoghurt or buttermilk
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
Step-by-Step
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Mix together the dry ingredients and then add the wet ingredients.
Knead for 2-3 minutes and shape into a round ball. Dust with flour and place onto a baking tray.
Make two deep cuts into the loaf in a cross shape, almost to the bottom of the loaf, and bake for 30 minutes.
Turn the loaf upside down, lower the oven temperature to 160 degrees and cook for a further 10-15 minutes.
Remove from the oven, place on a wire rack and leave to cool.