Monday, May 16, 2011

Hugh's Soda Bread

Half the world (well, NZ) and his wife must have been watching Hugh F-W this week as pretty much everyone I know is making soda bread! 
'Hugh's Everyday' is on tv just now and we can't miss an episode. It's a totally brilliant series.

I made loads of bread last year but as summer rolled in I kind of stopped but I wanted to get back into it again so this was as good a place to start as any.
Hugh's recipe is

Ingredients
* 500g plain flour  (I didn't use any special flour - just the basic "pams" plain flour.)
* 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
* 1 tsp fine sea salt
* Approx. 400ml buttermilk or live yoghurt
* A little milk, if necessary

I went the buttermilk route. The carton we can get at the supermarket is 600ml so I just upped everything else a wee bit.

Here's how Hugh makes it, and I copied it exactly.


1. Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl and stir in the salt. Make a well in the centre and pour in the buttermilk, stirring as you go. If necessary, add a tablespoon or two of milk to bring the mixture together; it should form a soft dough, just this side of sticky.


2. Tip it out on to a lightly floured work surface and knead lightly for about a minute, just long enough to pull it together into a loose ball but no longer – you need to get it into the oven while the bicarb is still doing its stuff. You're not looking for the kind of smooth, elastic dough you’d get with a yeast-based bread.




3. Put the round of dough on a lightly floured baking sheet and dust generously with flour. Mark a deep cross in it with a sharp, serrated knife, cutting about two-thirds of the way through the loaf. Put it in an oven preheated to 200°C/gas mark 6 and bake for 40-45 minutes, until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped underneath.



4. Cool on a wire rack if you like a crunchy crust, or wrap in a clean tea towel if you prefer a soft crust. Soda bread is best eaten while still warm, spread with salty butter and/or a dollop of your favourite jam. But if you have some left over the next day, it makes great toast.

This is the first time I've made soda bread and I noticed that the dough was super sticky! It stuck to the wooden bench, my hands, the spoon, pretty much everything it came into contact with. I had a mini strop and then added flour all over the place!

  It smells amazing while cooking. 



This is so super yummy I can't tell you!!
We're having home made jerusalem artichoke soup tonight for dinner with soda bread and lashings of butter.

5 comments:

  1. Oh, your bread looks divine, Laura! We love Hugh in this house as well. I don´t think we get him on TV (and we refuse to have cable) so our Hugh time is zero, but we watch the occasional video on YouTube.

    Gotta love the Hugh!!!!

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  2. Mr Mel & I adore Hugh, such a character, we try and catch every show. Will be trying the soda bread this weekend with pumpkin soup :)

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  3. Mmmmm, the smell of freshly made bread...

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  4. Instead of buttermilk, I use a heafty dollop of white vingegar in the milk. Do that first before you start measuring the dry stuff, and it will be all lumpy by the time you need it. I use Rachel Allen's recipe: 3 2/3 cup flour, 1tsp sugar, 1tsp salt, 1tsp baking soda, then 425ml soured milk. I do pizza toppings sometimes for a change

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  5. This looks amazing and doesn't look too tricky.
    I am totally in love with HFW and wish he was on TV a lot more. I am beginning to read some Aussie stuff too. Mathew Evans is great. So nice to have a southern hemisphere perspective.
    Have a great time reading your new book. I hope it involves you drinking some lovely cups of tea. I am sure he would approve.

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Laura x