Cakes & Bakes: Mini seedy soda breads

If you fancy making fresh bread, but don’t have the time to wait for the yeast to rise… twice… soda bread is a convenient option. These mini seedy soda breads are a great breakfast component; slice, butter and fill them with fried/poached/scrambled eggs, bacon, kippers or smoked mackerel.

If you can’t get hold of buttermilk – our local supermarket sells out on a regular basis – you can always make similar by stirring in the juice of one lemon to about 280ml of full fat milk. Leave the mixture to ‘curdle’ for about 10 minutes before adding it to your dry mixture.

I used black sesame seeds in my recipe as they’re what I had in the cupboard at the time. Brown sesame, sunflower, pumpkin, chia, flax or a mixture would work equally well.

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Mini seedy soda breads

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Cook Time 40

Course Bread

Cuisine British

Servings 6

Ingredients

350/12 oz plain or strong bread flour
100 g/3½oz medium oatmeal
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp salt
40 g/1½oz cold butter cubed
300 ml/10½fl oz buttermilk
30 g/1oz sesame seeds or mixed seeds

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 190ºC/375ºF/Gas mark 5
Grease & line a baking sheet with parchment paper
In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, oatmeal, bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar and salt
Rub in the butter
Make a well in the centre and pour in the buttermilk. Bring the mixture together to form a dough ball. Don't over-mix
Place the ball on to a well-floured worktop and divide into 6 equal pieces
One by one, lightly roll each piece into a ball and dip the 'top' of the ball into the seeds. If necessary, spritz the balls with water to help the seeds stick to the surface
Put the balls on the prepared tray, score the top of each ball with a cross and bake for 30-40 minutes until the tops are brown and well risen
Allow to cool on a wire rack. Eat warm

Keyword bread, seeds, sesame seeds, soda bread

Apricot jam stuffed almond french toast

One of my favourite comfort foods is French toast – or eggy bread as it’s sometimes called. It can be either savoury or sweet – like this apricot jam stuffed almond French toast I made this week.

Apricot and almond are a good match; just make sure you only use a ½ teaspoon of almond extract, or it will overpower the subtle flavour of the apricot conserve. Although I used ½ & ½ quantities of whole milk and double cream, you can use just single cream to make the custard mixture.

The secret to the best French toast is to fry it using a tablespoon of vegetable oil with a tablespoon of butter for 5 minutes on each side. Use a cast iron or other heavy-bottomed frying pan, making sure it’s on a low heat setting to prevent burning. Once both sides are a lovely golden brown colour, put the French toast on a baking sheet an pop it into a moderate oven for 15 minutes to ensure that it’s cooked through.

Eat it straight away… for breakfast, brunch or as a winter dessert.

Click here or on the image below to save my apricot jam stuffed almond French toast recipe to Pinterest

Apricot jam stuffed almond french toast

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Course Breakfast

Cuisine French

Ingredients

2 eggs
¼ pt whole milk
¼ pt double cream
1 tbsp caster sugar
½ tsp almond extract
4 slices of thick-sliced white bread
2 heaped tbsps apricot conserve
2 tbsps flaked almonds toasted
A couple shakes of icing sugar to finish

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 175ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4
In a large measuring jug, whisk the eggs with the milk, cream and sugar until the sugar has dissolved
Stir in the almond extract and set pour the mixture into a shallow dish that is large enough to fit the bread
Spread the apricot conserve on 2 of the slices of bread. Put the unspread slices on top to form 2 apricot sandwiches
Put a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of vegetable oil into a heavy-bottomed frying pan and set it over a low heat
Place the first sandwich into the dish of custard mixture for 30 seconds before turning it over and soaking the other side for a further 30 seconds. Carefully tip the dish to ensure the mixture coats all around the edges
When the butter in the frying pan has melted and begins to bubble, put the dipped sandwich into the pan and fry for 5 minutes. Using a heat-proof spatula, flip it over and cook the other side for 5 minutes
Once both sides are golden brown, take the first french toast out of the frying pan, put it on to a baking sheet and put it into the oven while you cook the second portion. When that one is done, finish it off in the oven like the first
Remove from the oven, slice each portion into 4 triangles, sprinkle over the flaked almonds and dredge with a little icing sugar
Eat immediately

Apricot jam-stuffed almond French toast ingredients

Keyword apricot, bread, French toast

Cakes & Bakes: Paul Welburn’s black treacle soda bread

This black treacle soda bread is like a cross between malt loaf and parkin.

It’s the kind of soda bread that really suits the autumn; I could imagine eating it… in a pre-Covid world… at a bonfire firework display in the cold outdoors. It’s filling, warming, sweet and comforting.

As usual, I had to halve the recipe as it’s just the two of us. Personally, next time, I’d use about half the quantity of treacle and a tad less salt too… but that’s just me.

In the original recipe, the bread was made to accompany gin and tonic-cured salmon. Not something I’d eat, but what to eat it with instead? I’ve had it smeared with butter however, I’d imagine it would also be good with smoked or maple bacon.

Click here or on the image below to save this black treacle soda bread recipe to Pinterest

Black treacle soda bread

2020-10-26 13:30:47

Serves 8

Cook Time

40 min

Cook Time

40 min

Ingredients

600g wholemeal flour
350g jumbo rolled oats
25g salt
½tsp baking powder
1½tsp bicarbonate of soda
375g black treacle
600ml buttermilk

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Instructions

Preheat the oven to 175°C/350ºF/Gas mark 4
Mix all of the ingredients except the buttermilk in a mixer until just incorporated, it will be quite wet
Add the buttermilk and mix well
Transfer to a shallow tin and bake for 35-40 minutes
Allow to cool on a wire rack

Notes

I used an equal quantity of whole-milk yoghurt instead of the buttermilk. You can also make your own buttermilk by stirring 2 tablespoons lemon juice into 600ml/20 fl oz whole milk

By Paul Welburn

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Home-made hops bread

When I was young, back in the early 1970s, there was a little bakery located across the road from our house. They baked their bread in a wood fired oven – half a century before this method became trendy. The bakery made the most fantastic hops bread – a queue would build up, just before they opened their doors – people with their paper bags in hand – to buy fresh, hot hops bread.

Hops bread has been on my ‘to bake’ list for a long time; I just needed to find the right recipe. When I was back in Trinidad last year, one of my friends shared her family’s recipe. The recipe calls for ‘shortening’ which, over there, would probably mean Prize or Cookeen – things I have no hope of getting my hands on in rural Wales. I swapped it for plain old butter.

I’ve made two batches of hops bread so far, but I’m yet to master the process. I’m still to duplicate that perfect, golden brown crusty domed top with a soft pull-apart centre that’s similar to Hokkaido milk bread. Practice makes perfect!

Enjoy them plain – spread with butter, with slices or grated mounds of strong cheddar or stuffed with buljol. I filled my first one with a delicious crispy fried tofu slice… I’ll be sharing that particular recipe next week!

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Home-made hops bread

2020-09-23 17:53:22

Yields 20

Cook Time

20 min

Cook Time

20 min

Ingredients

1tbsp/9g instant yeast
600ml/20fl oz warm water
1kg/2.2lbs plain flour
60g/4oz butter/margarine/shortening
1¼tsp salt
2tbsps granulated sugar (you can use brown sugar)

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Instructions

Activate the yeast in warm water and 1tsp of the sugar (approx. 10 minutes) before adding mixture to other ingredients
Combine all ingredients in bowl
Knead to a soft dough for about 5 mins
Place in a greased bowl and allow to rise for about 1 hour
Punch down and divide into 85g/3oz balls
Place on greased sheet and let rise for another 35 mins
Heat the oven to 220ºC/425ºF/Gas mark 7 and bake for 15-20 mins

Notes

Place a pan in oven while it is heating and throw some ice cubes to create steam when trays are placed in the oven

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/