Wheaten Bread

That's what I'm talking about.

A taste of home! I just spent an excellent weekend at home, catching up with my wonderful family and friends, and of course eating my fave treats from Belfast. It inspired me to make this lovely dense loaf, a staple of my childhood diet.

So, this is an excellent loaf if you don’t have the time or will to follow the normal bread-making routine of kneed, let rise, kneed again, let rise again etc. It’s a traditional Irish type of bread which uses bicarbonate of soda for the rising part, meaning there is no yeast and therefore no need to spend half the day leaving it to rise. While I love the satisfaction that comes from a particularly well-risen yeast loaf, I do adore the flavour, simple method and speed of preparation of this lovely little loaf.

This is a dense, flavourful bread which I find goes particularly well with soup, and is absolutely exquisite buttered, warm from the oven.

Makes one large loaf

Ingredients

• 150g plain flour
• 300g wholemeal flour
• 50g porridge/rolled oats
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp honey
• 450ml buttermilk

Method

To prepare, preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius and cut out some greaseproof paper and place on top of the baking tray.

Mix together the dry ingredients.

Make a well in the centre and pour in the buttermilk and honey.

Stir quickly and bring the loaf together until a rough sticky dough forms.

With floured hands, form  into a rounded loaf and place on the baking tray.

Cut an “X” into the top with a sharp knife and bake for 50 minutes in the preheated oven.

Serve warm from the oven with some lovely salty butter.

A big hunk of home-made goodness. Tasted like home.

Sliced, hot from the oven..

Served with some lovely salty butter.