Baking Bread

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I've grown up with my mother regularly baking bread at home. She mainly bakes plain white loaves, which fill the house with an amazing smell and taste wonderful as they come out of the oven. I would happily eat a few slices just as they are, not even needing butter or anything else to top them. You can ask my friend C., she'll agree. We used to joke that she could smell my mother's bread at the other end of the village, as you could be sure she'd be around on bread baking days (and no there was no kind of schedule or regularity for her to plan her visits to).

Even though I don't think I ever baked bread with my mum, I obviously was around a lot when she did and maybe that's why I never had a fear of yeast and happily bake anything with it in. I know a lot of people are put off by baking with yeast though (honestly, don't be, just give it a try), but that doesn't mean you can't have fresh bread made in your own kitchen. If you don't like baking with yeast or don't want to or can't hang around waiting for proofing and dough rising, try baking a soda bread. There's no yeast in sight and it still makes your house smell wonderful and you get that satisfaction that comes from taking a beautiful loaf of fresh bread from the oven.



Soda Bread (makes two loaves)

3 cups plain white flour
3 cups wholemeal flour (You can use just just white flour if you prefer. If you do 2 1/2cups of buttermilk should be enough.)
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 - 2 3/4 cups buttermilk

Preheat your oven to 190C/Gas 5.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Add the buttermilk, starting with 2 1/2 cups and mix into the dry ingredients. If you are using both, brown and white flour, you might need to add up to 1/4 cup more to bind the flour.

The mix will be a bit lumpy and not too sticky.

Turn it out onto a floured surface and kneed it for a minute or so until well combined, it stops being lumpy.

Divide into two and form round loaves with a flattened top.

Place on a non stick baking tray.

With a sharp knife slash a cross into the top and rest for ten minutes.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, until golden brown. If the loaves are done they will sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Any homemade loaf, yeast bread or not, is best eaten fresh on the day you bake it. If you want to store it though, I find the best way is to cut it into slices as soon as it is cool, wrap it in freezer bags and freeze it straight away. That way you can take the required portions out of the freezer as and when you need it. The slices defrost in less than half an hour and taste pretty much as fresh.