SIMPLE SODA BREAD

I love bread fresh from the oven and this bread is delicious. It's so simple and doesn't involve any hanging around for hours waiting for the dough to prove and its yeast free, so all good!

I made this for lunch at the weekend. I had just made some lovely watercress and pea soup and wanted some bread to go along with it, so this fitted the bill perfectly. 

It's all mixed in the bowl and only requires 5 minutes of kneading and 35 to 45 minutes in the oven.  I just slashed the top of the loaf into rough quarters which I then served  in big rustic chunks! You can just shape the loaf into a round shape, then serve it in slices if you prefer!

I buy all my flour from Locavore and I used a mixture of organic rye flour and strong white flour and the bread turned out perfectly, with a wonderful texture.
Wheat is heavily sprayed with pesticides so its most definitely worth buying organic flour for your home baking. See organic blog post for more details here

This bread was one of the many we tried at the Vegan Cooking Retreat so again big thanks to Lee Watson at the beach house kitchen for the recipe.
The recipe is vegan and uses soya milk but you can use organic dairy milk if you do dairy.

I'm off to Portugal for a wee family holiday tomorrow, with hopefully lots of sunshine, great food and moderate amounts of exercise! We have our own pool although I don't think its heated so not sure how much swimming I'll be doing. but I'll be doing some yoga and possibly running!
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I will return feeling wonderfully relaxed and raring to go with new workshops and lots of new ideas for the blog! That's positive thinking right there!!

If you haven't made bread before then this recipe is a great place to start. I hope it becomes a regular part of your repertoire!

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So here is the recipe

SIMPLE SODA BREAD

Ingredients
500g strong wholewheat flour (use 200g strong white flour and 300g wholewheat flour for a lighter loaf)
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
150 ml plant based milk ( soya is good)
2 teaspoons vinegar
200ml warm water
2 teaspoons sea salt
2 tablespoons light brown sugar

Method

1.  Preheat the oven to 180C
2. Add the vinegar to the milk and stir. Put aside for a few minutes to curdle.
3. Sift the flour into a large bowl with the bicarb of soda, salt and sugar.
4. Stir in the soya milk and water until a dough forms.
5. Knead the dough for 5 minutes to give the bread a good texture. You can do it in the bowl, its less messy! Oil your hands if the dough is sticking. Shape into a round shape and slash the top crosswise with a sharp knife to give a nice rustic look.
6. Place on a lightly oiled baking tray and bake for 35 to 45 minutes.
7. Check for done ness with a skewer to see if the centre is cooked. Tapping on the bottom is not a good gauge of done-ness for this bread.
8. Leave to cool on a wire rack and enjoy !