Easy Homemade Bread

Despite the proliferation of high-quality, reasonably-priced, artisan breads that are now readily available on most supermarket shelves, nothing quite beats the taste of one’s own homemade bread, straight from the oven, served with lashings of melting butter.

However, most people are quite understandably put off by time and effort it takes to prepare a yeast-based bread – considering the busy lives we all lead, all that palaver involved in waiting for the dough to ‘prove’ is simply too much bother.

However, a solution can be found in the old store-cupboard staple that is bicarbonate of soda. A perennial favourite in Irish kitchens, the humble bicarb provides a pleasing alternative to yeast, not least because it does not require any time to ‘rise’, which means the entire process of bread-making is vastly simplified.

Below is a recipe for a fibre-packed, nutty, wholemeal soda bread, with a white version to follow later.

Wholemeal Irish Soda Bread (Serves 4)

Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 50 mins

Ingredients:

180g wholemeal flour
50g plain flour
50g pinhead oatmeal*
25g wheatgerm
1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon white sugar
1¼ teaspoons salt
280 ml buttermilk
1 egg, preferably free-range

(* Feel free to mix the pinhead oatmeal with other pre-cooked grains such as rye or pearl barley. If you live in the UK, Waitrose stocks a great four-grain mix of spelt, pearl barley, rye and wholemeal grains in their new ‘love life’ range, which works really well in this recipe.)

You will also need a small (1lb) loaf tin, slicked with a little butter.

1. Preheat oven to 190C / 375F / Gas 5
2. Place all the dry ingredients into a large-ish bowl.
3. Lightly beat the egg into the buttermilk.
4. With a fork, combine the buttermilk and egg mixture with the dry ingredients.
5. Spread the mixture into the greased loaf tin.
6. Cook for 50 minutes, until bread is golden-brown and emits a hollow sound when tapped on the bottom.
7. Allow to cook on a wire tray, while you enjoy the delicious smell of fresh-baked bread that has filled your kitchen!

It really is as simple as that!

Like most homemade breads, this one should be eaten fresh on the same day – but in the unlikely event that there is any leftover, it makes amazing toast for up to 3 days!

London’s Burning! (The Baker Did It!)

On this day (September 2^nd) in 1666, the Great Fire of London sparked into life.

The fire, which would wipe out 80% of the city, was ignited in a bakehouse in Pudding Lane, a short work from London’s famous Tower Bridge. The proprietor of the bakery, who regularly supplied bread to the king, was Thomas Farriner – but the culprit was one of the bakehouse workers, who failed to dampen the oven properly.

When the bakery went up in flames, Farriner and his family fled across the maze of rooftops that surrounded the building. The only member of the household to remain behind was a maid, who was too paralyzed from fright and shock to run. Unfortunately for her, the flames soon engulfed the entire building, and the fire claimed its first victim.

The fire was to rage for 3 days, until it finally burnt out on September 5th. The famous diarist, Samuel Pepys, chronicled the progress of the flames in his journals, which have since become an invaluable historical record.

Unlike many of the London's inhabitants, Samuel did not attempt to move his belongings out of the city as the flames drew closer to his home. Instead, he came up with an ingenious way to protect his most treasured possessions, as this diary entry will attest:

"I did dig another [hole], and put our wine in it; and I my Parmazan cheese, as well as my wine …”

Truly, a man after my own heart!

(In the end, Pepys and his buried cheese and wine escaped unscathed.  Although the fire spread to his street, it died out before reaching his house.)