raising the bread

The delight of soda bread, for those that make it, is how mindlessly easy and quick it is to knock up.

This morning I lay in bed, feverishly debating whether I had enough time to have a swim before work.  I then debated many other things, equally feverishly, until I was out of time.  Just before jumping in the shower though, despite the late hour, I knocked up a loaf of bread and put it in the oven.  Not really a time-saving feature of any morning, but it just goes to show that someone with 5 things on their mind (and an abysmal multi-tasker, at that) can still squeeze in a morning loaf.

Naturally the reason for this speed is the lack of yeast-faff: the ingredients are merely flour, bicarb, salt + buttermilk.  And the method: twirl it around a bit, drop on a tray, cut a cross-shape and bake.  It really is that easy and unskilled: no waiting, no kneading.  I have lost my trusty old recipe so used a James Martin one – chosen for being half-and-half wholemeal / white.  A skirt round the Internet bedazzled me with the many recipes and I’m going to try a few in turn until I land a new favourite. 

Rachel Allen admonishes that you shouldn’t knead soda bread, as this renders it ‘heavy’, and who is going to argue with her?  But I must admit to enjoying a bit of kneading, however early it is: when I have exhausted my inevitable forthcoming pash for making soda loaves, I think I’ll go back to the lovely cold, slow-rise yeasted bread I used to make as a student.  Made up the night before, it just needs an early-morning fist-fight (knead) before baking.  Yes, that is next on the cards.  But for now I am in the thrall of the soda.

And the delight of soda bread for those that EAT it, is… well.  Try it and see.