Scott, from The Chilterns, likes making bread so he requested a good soda bread recipe.

How about a Rich Soda Bread recipe? This one is definitely good enough to match his terrific music.

Soda Bread is a quick bread that uses baking soda as its leavening agent instead of yeast. It’s usually a simple stir together of flour, salt, soda and buttermilk or soured milk, and is very good just with those ingredients.

But here the elevation to ‘Rich’ comes from the addition of egg, oats and butter. These humble ingredients add more depth to the loaf and make the bread even more moist.

Darina Allen must be making bread for an army, because this recipe yields one ENORMOUS loaf! It is so good that it never goes to waste, but this time I wanted to experiment and see if I could halve the recipe.

I halved all of the ingredients with the exception of the baking soda, and I only added the yolk of the egg. Worked like a charm.

Rich Soda Bread

Ingredients:

5 cups (550g) whole wheat flour, stone-ground
5 cups (550g) all-purpose flour
1 Tbs salt
2 tsp baking soda
3 to 4 cups (750ml to 1 liter) buttermilk (Use enough to make the dough soft and not overly sticky)
1/4 cup (25g) old fashioned oatmeal
1 egg
2 Tbs (25g) butter, softened

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 450℉/230℃.

2. Whisk together the flours, salt, soda, and oats.

3. Whisk together the egg and 3 cups of the buttermilk.

4. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture. Pour in the buttermilk mixture and, using your hands, knead the flour mixture into the buttermilk mixture until it is incorporated. Knead in the softened butter and use additional buttermilk as needed.

5. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and shape roughly into a round, two inches (5cm) tall. Cut a deep cross on the loaf.

6. Lightly flour a baking sheet or line with parchment, place dough onto it, and bake for 15 minutes.

7. Reduce heat to 400℉/200℃ and bake for 25-30 minutes longer. The bread should be brown and crispy and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Recipe slightly adapted from Darina Allen’s Ballymaloe Cooking School Cookbook

Here is the debut single from The Chilterns. ‘Roadside Memorials’ is a lovely little ballad outlining the singer’s requests should he die in Uxbridge.

The Chilterns-Roadside Memorials

Check out The Chilterns on YouTube where you can watch a cool video set to ‘Roadside Memorials’ and also link to buy the song.

Cheers!