Happy World Baking Day everyone!

I hope you’ve all donned your pinnies, rolled up your sleeves and are beating sifting folding and whisking to your hearts’ content in the midst of great billowing clouds of flour and ecstasy. Baking is what Sundays are for and today I baked some soda bread.

Soda bread feels like cheating because there’s no waiting around for the whole proofing malarkey and there’s no kneading either. You just bung everything in a bowl, mix it about a bit and you’ve got yourself some oven-ready dough! So it’s just the ticket when you crave some freshly-baked goodness for lunch but not so much so that you’re willing to sacrifice that sacred weekend lie-in. So me every weekend, basically.

I’ve added a couple of twists to the traditional today: the addition of buckwheat flour lends its distinctive toasted, nutty flavour (and halve’s the loaf’s gluten content too) and the rosemary’s heady pine notes add to the irresistible earthiness of this close-textured loaf.

Perfect eaten warm with lashings of butter, or torn into hunks and dunked into soups, stoups and stews. I suppose it’s a bit autumnal *oops* so perfect for those of you living in the Southern hemisphere at the moment!

Oh and one last thing: you can now also follow pip & little blue on Bloglovin’ if that’s the way you like to roll. Just click on this link and you’ll be whisked off to the Bloglovin’ page: Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Rosemary & buckwheat soda bread

Makes one loaf

Ingredients:

– 25g unsalted butter, melted
– 250g buckwheat flour, sifted
– 250g white plain flour, sifted (plus extra for dusting)
– 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, sifted
– 1 scant teaspoon salt
– 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
– 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
– 1 tablespoon runny honey
– 400ml buttermilk

Method:

Preheat your oven to 200°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients except the buttermilk. Stir in the buttermilk and keep mixing gently until a rough dough forms. Tip: It’s best to use your hands instead of a wooden spoon to avoid overworking the dough.

Transfer the dough to your lined baking tray and pat into a circular loaf. Dust with a little extra flour and score a deep ‘V’ into the top. Tip: Some people do this with a knife but I like to use the floured handle of a wooden spoon for a softer effect. Whichever way you choose, the ‘V’ will help the loaf to cook all the way through. I think the olde worlde reason was something about letting fairies out…

Bake for 45-50 minutes until risen and golden and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped. Cool on a wire rack. Tip: Drape a tea towel over the loaf as it cools to keep the crust from drying out.

Best eaten within the day (soda bread dries out very quickly) but it also freezes well.

Source: Recipe and photos by pip & little blue.