Emma’s Brown Soda Bread

Well, Emma says that this is not really soda bread but brown bread only and maybe the title should be different!

In my foreign ignorance, though, I like to call it soda bread, sorry Emma.

Emma is a great friend of mine, I have known her since Deta started primary school. I know it sounds like ages when it is actually a few years  but it feels like ages!

We both think alike when it comes to healthy food. Especially food for our kids. We like to give each other samples of our homemade dishes and as it happens, long time ago she gave me the first loaf of her brown bread.

Delicious, with all those crunchy tasty healthy seeds! And the wheat germ and pinhead oats are another super healthy addition.

To be fair the recipe was given to Emma by Ciara, a dear friend of her I had the pleasure to meet while camping with all of them last June.

But to me it will always be Emma’s brown soda bread! She gave me one of her two loaves so many times and most of all she gave me the recipe.

Recipe that I modified slightly to suit our diet.

I omit the tiny bit of sugar and replaced the butter milk initially with vegetable milk, and lately with simple water, which makes it a vegan brown soda bread. 

I know that buttermilk is a key ingredient in Irish soda breads, but water is a main ingredient in normal bread and, besides, the taste is still great!

We don’t find soda bread in Italy, so when we moved to Ireland it was a new taste to try from shops and offer to our Italian guests visiting.

Soda bread to our family always tasted more like a cake than bread. It was that hint of sweet flavour, or probably the consistency, definitely different from my experience with bread.

Now, Emma’s brown soda bread is full of those little seeds that make it perfect for any use: soups, sandwiches, spreads but to me the best use is for breakfast.

We spread the slices with tahini (or any nut butter), or with a sugar-free jam and it is fantastic!

Emma’s Brown Soda Bread

Course: Breads

Cuisine: Irish

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Servings: 8 people

Well, Emma says that this is not really soda bread but brown bread only and maybe the title should be different!

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Ingredients

• 5 gr 00 wholemeal flour
• 80 gr pinhead oat
• 80 gr wheat germ
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 2 tsp bread soda soda bicarbonate
• 100 gr mixed seeds or more line seeds, sunflower, pumpkin, sesame
• 570 ml water

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven at 170 degrees.

2. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.

3. Add the water and mix with a spoon. Consistency should be wet rather than sloppy.

4. Brush a bit of extra virgin olive oil on the bottom and the sides of two loaves tins.

5. Dust the tins with wholemeal flour to cover all the oil you brushed.

6. Transfer the mix in the tins and bake for 45 minutes in the oven at 170°, or until they have formed a nice crust at the top.

Recipe Notes

Makes 2 loaves.