Easy Brown Bread

This is a very easy brown bread that can be whipped up in minutes with no need for proving or rising.

I don’t want to say that it is an Irish soda bread as most soda breads I have seen recipes for do not contain butter. It is adapted from this recipe from Imen McDonnell. Check out her blog, it is really beautiful with stunning photography. When I originally make this it worked perfectly. However, the buttermilk I used was no longer available (I feel another rant about supermarkets discontinuing brands coming on) and the recipe didn’t work quite so well. I changed the amounts of buttermilk and butter and then had to adjust the cooking temperature accordingly.

Ingredients:

175g plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp bread soda or baking soda
275g coarse wholemeal flour
50g unsalted butter softened
300ml buttermilk
1 egg
1 tbsp honey

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan/gas mark 4.
Sieve the plain flour, salt and bread soda into a mixing bowl.
Mix in the wholemeal flour.
Rub in the butter until the mixture is crumbly.
In another bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk and honey.
Make a hole in the middle of the flour and butter mixture and pour in liquid ingredients.
Mix together with your hand until everything is fully combined and you have a sticky dough.
Flour your baking sheet or line with baking parchment and shape the dough into a round onto the sheet.
Mark a cross on the top and very lightly dust with flour.
Bake for approx. 50 mins. Check after 45 mins, tap the base of the bread and if it makes a hollow sound the bread is fully baked.
Allow to cool on a wire rack before cutting.
Enjoy with lots of real butter!