There’s something about making bread that almost acts as a dividing line between bakers. There aren’t many amongst us who won’t make the occasional cake, maybe now and again have a go at some scones and if feeling really adventurous there might be a special occasion pie. Bread is different though, no one just seems to bake the occasional loaf, once you’ve made your first it quickly becomes the bake you go to most often. Part of this can be put down to bread being such a staple, something which no breakfast or lunch is complete without. Beyond that, I think it’s the alchemy of bread baking which hooks you. Taking those few base ingredients and transforming them into something which looks, tastes and smells so good.
All of which is a way of saying it was bread week on the Bake Off.
This time around the challenges were to produce two loaves of soda bread for their signature bake, one savoury and one sweet, to make a batch of rainbow bagels for the technical and to make a bread plaque for the show stopper.
If you clicked on the bagel link you’ll already know that not only do they look remarkably unappetising, what’s the point of baking something that you’re not sure you will want to eat, but also they need a large array of food colouring pastes. I only have a couple of these in the house and as I’m still trying to keep shopping expeditions to a minimum I didn’t feel like getting masked up and going out to look for them.
Bread plaques are a work of art created out of dough. I believe they date back to harvest festivals and were seen as a way of celebrating a bountiful harvest. I can’t help feeling that it’s another bake where if you’re not careful the look is taking precedent over the taste. Having said that, there were some remarkable bakes.
So having ruled out the technical and the showstopper it was time to make some soda bread this weekend. If you are one of the people who has been put off making bread by worries about the kneading the dough requires and then the extended time for proving. this is where you should start. Neither of these things is required with soda bread as there is no yeast in it. It’s much closer to cake making as all you do is combine the ingredients, put them in the oven and bake. It’s as easy as that.
The recipe I opted for is one I saw in an Ottolenghi column in the Guardian a few weeks ago, one which went straight on to my ‘to bake’ list as soon as I read it.
I will just forewarn you though, this makes an absolute monster. Unless you’re baking for some very big appetites you could half all ingredient amounts and still have a good size loaf. As I didn’t spot this until I’d baked it, I’ve frozen half of mine.
Ingredients
- 180ml milk
- 240g Greek-style yoghurt
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp of orange zest..this equates to approximately two oranges.
- 2 tsp ground star anise
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 40g caster sugar
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 0.5 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 70g unsalted butter..cold and cut into cubes
- 150g soft dried figs..stalks removed and fruit cut into small chunks
Method
- Preheat oven to gas mark six and line a baking tray
- Whisk together the milk, yoghurt, egg and orange zest
- In another bowl mix the flour, spices, sugar, bicarb, baking powder and salt. Then rub in the cubed butter with your fingers until the mix resembles bread crumbs.
- Stir in the chopped figs and then add the wet mixture. Stir until just combined.
- As the dough will be wet you will need to put some flour on your hands before you transfer it from the bowl to the lined baking tray. Once done gently shape the dough into a circular mound. Use a knife to score a deep cross in the top and then bake for 45 minutes.
- When you first take the bread out of the oven it will feel quite crumbly, but it will firm up as it cools
This slightly sweet bread is wonderful if you serve it with some cheese.
David in the kitchen. 