brown bread or irish soda bread

We made simple fruit scones and brown bread (also sometimes called Irish soda bread) during our baking class with Kate in Galway. Brown bread is a staple in Ireland. It came with nearly every meal we ate. It can be a little dry, so it’s great with butter, soups, or dishes with lots of sauce.

Since there were only two of us and we had already baked a dozen fresh scones with Kate (recipe here), we didn’t need two full loaves of bread. So we halved the recipe and each made one loaf instead of two. We made one with porridge oats and the other with a seed mix. It it was a nice way to try different types of brown bread without overdoing our carb intake, lol.

Kate’s Brown Bread

Recipe from Kate’s Place (you can book a baking experience with Kate here)

Ingredients

• 6 oz. coarse brown flour

• 2 oz. plain white flour

• 1/2 tsp. salt

• 1 heaping teaspoon of “bread soda” (baking soda)

• 2 tsp. sunflower oil

• 1 oz. porridge oats or seed mix (extra for sprinkling on top of loaf)

• 200 ml. buttermilk

• 1 egg

Method

1. Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

2. Add buttermilk, egg, and oil and mix.
   Expert tip from Kate: Use a wooden spoon to mix. The consistency should be thick but able to pour into the tin.

3. Grease two 1 lb. loaf tins. If making full recipe, divide the mixture equally between the two tins. If making half-batch, use only one tin.
   Expert tip from Kate: Don’t push the dough into the tin. If it doesn’t pour evenly into the tin, simply tap the tin on a counter a few times to even out the dough.

4. Sprinkle extra oats or seed mix on top of the loaf.

5. Bake for 30 minutes at 150C (300F) if using a convection oven or at 180C (350F) in a conventional oven.