Cakes & Bakes: Wild garlic & goats cheese soda bread

Wild garlic & goats cheese soda bread

We’re lucky enough to have lots of wild garlic growing in parts of our garden. Before moving, we used to carefully forage in the wild for a few leaves to make pesto and garlic butter. Now that we have so much of it, we’ll be using it to make so much more… beginning with this wild garlic & goats cheese soda bread.

Dry ingredients in a mixing bowl Wet and dry ingredients in a mixing bowl

This year, for some reason, we’ve left it a little late to harvest. Leaves should be picked before the flowers come into bloom; which generally happens in early May. If you’re picking in the wild, try to pick only a couple of leaves from each plant. Don’t exhaust the plant or leave massive bald patches in the woodland floor; don’t pick more than you need. For this recipe, you only need a handful… only about a dozen or so leaves.

Chopped wild garlic and goats cheese on wooden chopping boards Wild garlic & goats cheese soda bread before being cooked

The goats cheese I used was quite a wet, gooey one, but you could always use a more crumbly-textured kind. The flavours of the wild garlic and goats cheese really complement each other. While it was cooking, the cheesy, garlicky smell engulfing the kitchen was mouth-watering!

I like it still warm from the oven, with just a bit of butter spread over – melting into the crumb. Justin thinks it’s delicious as an accompaniment to poached eggs, bacon or cooked ham.

Cooked wild garlic & goats cheese soda bread boule

Click here or on the image below to save my wild garlic & goats cheese soda bread recipe to Pinterest

Homemade wild garlic and goats cheese soda bread recipe

Wild garlic & goats cheese soda bread

Wild garlic & goats cheese soda bread

Cook Time 25 minutes
Course Bread
Cuisine British
Servings 1 loaf

Ingredients
  

  • 350 ml/12fl oz buttermilk or 330ml/11½fl oz full cream milk with the juice of a lemon stirred in
  • 200 g/7oz wholemeal flour
  • 200 g/7 oz plain flour
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 100 g/3½oz goats cheese cubed
  • handful of wild garlic leaves finely chopped

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375ºF/Gas mark 5
  • Grease & line a baking sheet with parchment paper
  • In a large mixing bowl, combine the flours, bicarb and salt
  • Add the cubed goats cheese and chopped wild garlic leaves and toss to combine. Make a well in the middle
  • Pour in the buttermilk and bring the dough together. Don't overwork
  • Empty the dough out on to a well-floured work surface and form into a ball. Again don't overwork
  • Put the dough ball on to the prepared baking sheet. Score with a deep cross on top
  • Bake for 25-30 minutes until the top is a lovely golden brown
  • Take off the baking sheet on to a wire rack and allow to cool for a few minutes
  • Slice and serve warm
Wild garlic & goats cheese soda bread ingredients
If you don't have buttermilk, make something similar by stirring the juice of a lemon into full fat milk and allowing it to sit for about ½ an hour before use
Keyword bread, cheese,, forage, goats cheese, soda bread

Cakes & Bakes: Wild garlic sourdough focaccia

Home-made wild garlic sourdough focaccia | H is for Home

Wild garlic loves this damp, shady corner of our garden. We keep the majority of it contained within an old galvanised wash tub, but if you look closely, you can see that it’s managed to escape and grow in the cracks of the flags!

Wild garlic growing in a vintage zinc wash tub in our garden | H is for Home

I harvested a few of the leaves to go in a wild garlic sourdough focaccia; wild garlic and wild yeast!

Wild garlic oil ingredients | H is for Home Home-made wild garlic oil | H is for Home

In less than a minute, I blitzed the leaves with some olive oil into a liquid about the consistency of a vinaigrette.

pouring sourdough focaccia dough on to an oiled oven tray | H is for Home poured sourdough focaccia dough on to an oiled oven tray | H is for Home poured sourdough focaccia dough on to an oiled oven tray | H is for Home

The dough took a little longer to be ready… about 12 hours in a cool cloakroom.

Cooked wild garlic sourdough focaccia cooling on a wire rack | H is for Home

Depending on the size of your baking tray(s), the recipe makes 2 small or one large loaf. I used a large tray – 39cm x 27cm (15″ x 10½”).

Slice of wild garlic sourdough focaccia with aubergine & tomato spaghetti | H is for Home

It’s absolutely delicious – moist yet airy – and full of intense flavour. Perfect for accompanying pasta dishes, salads, antipasti and cheeses.

Click here to save my recipe to Pinterest for later

Wild garlic sourdough focaccia
For the dough
  1. 190g/7⅔oz sourdough starter (100% hydration)
  2. 310g/11oz tepid water
  3. 2tbsp olive oil
  4. 1tsp runny honey
  5. 500g/17⅔oz 00 flour
  6. 4g/⅛oz salt
For the topping
  1. 6 leaves of wild garlic
  2. 5tbsp olive oil
  3. 1tbsp coarse salt crystals or flakesHome-made wild garlic sourdough focaccia ingredients
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Instructions
  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the starter with the water, olive oil and honey
  2. With the dough hook attached and on a low speed, slowly add the flour and knead for around 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to come away from the sides of the bowl. Leave to rest for 10 minutes
  3. Add the salt, kneading until it's fully combined
  4. Allow to prove until doubled in size (depending on the temperature, this could be anywhere from 2 hours in a warm kitchen to overnight in the fridge. Make it fit in with your plans and schedule)
  5. Once sufficiently proved, preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas mark 6. If you have one, put your baking stone on a shelf in the bottom ⅓rd of your oven
  6. Coat a baking tray(s) liberally with olive oil, making sure you include up the sides
  7. Gently pour the dough into the centre of the oiled tray and carefully ease it towards the corners. You don't want to deflate the air pockets
  8. Cover with greased clingfilm and allow to prove again in a warm place for about an hour
  9. Make rows of indentations across and down into the dough, drizzle with more olive oil, sprinkle with the coarse salt and bake for 15 minutes
  10. Remove from the oven and spread the wild garlic oil over the top.
  11. Turn the tray 180º (to ensure even browning) and return it to the oven for a further 15 minutes or until the top becomes golden brown
  12. Remove from the oven, take the loaf off the baking tray(s) and allow to cool on a wire rack for a couple of minutes
  13. Slice and serve
Notes
  1. This bread is perfect for mopping up tomatoey or cheesy pasta sauces!
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Etsy List: National Garlic Day

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'National Garlic Day' Etsy List curated by H is for Home

The US has some crazy ‘National Days’. Last month saw National Get Over It Day, National Earmuff Day and National Everything You Think is Wrong Day.

But I’m claiming today’s National Garlic Day for the rest of the world! Garlic enhances food… no, it enhances life! It tastes great and is good for your health too.

The UK is a nation of garlic lovers; we have an annual Garlic Festival in August down in the Isle of Wight where there’s a long tradition of growing the aromatic bulb.

Later on today I’ll be make a batch of wild garlic butter – we have a small patch of ramsons behind our house that is ready to pick!

National Garlic Day
Curated by H is for Home

Cakes & Bakes: Wild garlic, leek and blue cheese quiche

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Home-made blue cheese & wild garlic quiche | H is for Home #recipe #wildgarlic #pie #forage

This week we did a review of the book, Pie* by Genevieve Taylor. We couldn’t review the book properly without recreating one of the recipes within, now could we?

patch of wild garlic growing in wooded area

It’s currently ramson season – ramsons are also known as wild garlic – so we thought we’d try a timely dish. Blue cheese, leek and wild garlic quiche. Delicious hot, warm or cold with a little side salad of rocket, spinach and watercress.

*We have a copy of Pie to give away (sorry, UK only). Entry below the recipe*

Home-made blue cheese & wild garlic quiche | H is for Home #recipe #wildgarlic #pie #forage

Wild garlic, leek and blue cheese quiche

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes
Servings 4

Ingredients
  

  • For the pastry
  • 180 g plain flour
  • pinch salt
  • 90 g cold butter cut into small cubes
  • 3-4 tbs ice-cold water
  •  
  • For the filling
  • 2 tbs olive oil
  • 2 leeks washed & sliced
  • 150 g about 4 handfuls wild garlic
  • 200 g crème fraîche
  • 2 eggs
  • 100 g blue cheese I used Dolcelatte but Stilton, Roquefort, Gorgonzola etc would work just as well
  • salt & ground black pepper to taste
  •  
  •  

Instructions
 

  • Sift the flour & salt together into a medium-sized mixing bowl
  • Add the cubed butter and use your fingertips and thumbs to rub the ingredients together until you have coarse crumbs
  • Lift your hands out of the bowl as you rub to add air
  • Add just enough cold water to bring the mixture together into clumps
  • Tip the clumped crumbs on to a sheet of cling film and squeeze gently into a ball
  • Wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes
  • Preheat the oven to 200ºC/180ºF/Gas mark 6
  • Roll out the pastry and carefully line a quiche dish
  • Bake blind for 10 minutes
  • Put the olive oil into a large, deep frying pan set over a low heat and heat gently, then stir in the leeks
  • Scrunch up a sheet of greaseproof paper and briefly rinse it under running water
  • Shake off the excess water, then lay the dampened paper over the leeks, tucking it under snugly at the edges. This creates a steamy lid that will help the leeks soften without colouring
  • Sweat the leeks gently for around 15 minutes or until they are soft and tender, lifting the paper to stir occasionally
  • In a colander, rinse the wild garlic under a cold running tap
  • Drain well, chop roughly and add to the leeks. Re-cover loosely with the paper and cook for a further 5-8 minutes or until the garlic has wilted
  • Remove from the heat, discard the paper and spoon the softened filling into the pastry tart case and spread evenly. Set aside
  • In a jug, whisk together the crème fraîche and eggs, seasoning well with salt & ground black pepper
  • Slowly pour into the pastry tart case, allowing it to find its own level among the vegetables
  • Cut the cheese into cubes and scatter over the quiche
  • Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the filling is just set
  • Carefully remove the quiche from the dish to a serving plate or wooden board

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