Description
Here’s a quick and easy loaf of soda bread to whip up, with no yeast, and is super delicious alongside a hearty stew on a cold night. Oh, and don’t save this Guinness bread only for St Patrick’s Day, it’s delicious any day of the year!
Ingredients
- 300g wholemeal flour
- 200g plain flour
- 2 tbsp rolled oats + 1 extra tbsp for topping
- 2 tsp sea salt flakes
- 2 tsp bicarb soda
- 250ml Guinness
- 150ml buttermilk
- 2 tbsp golden syrup
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Grease a loaf pan and pop aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and give it a quick whisk, to break up any clumps and aerate the dry ingredients.
- Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the Guinness, buttermilk and golden syrup to the middle of the bowl. Using a wooden spoon or spatula, mix all the ingredients together until they are just combined, but no more as it doesn’t like to be overmixed. It should be a wet and sticky dough, unlike a traditional bread dough.
- Place the dough into the greased loaf pan. Using a spoon dunked in a little water, and smooth out the top of the loaf. With a sharp knife, make a 1-2cm cut on the top of the dough down the center of the loaf. Scatter the loaf with the extra tablespoon of rolled oats.
- Pop the loaf into the preheated oven and bake for 35 minutes or until cooked through and golden brown on top.
- Remove the loaf of bread from the bread pan and turn out onto a wire rack to let the bread cool. You can tell when a loaf of fresh bread is cooked when you tap on the base and get a hollow sound.
Notes
I bake this Guinness bread in a small loaf pan. 20 x 11cm loaf pan greased with butter. When I’m making soda bread loaves in a tin, I never line them with parchment paper. Maybe I’m a bit of a gambler, but I’ve never had one stick. If in doubt, line the base with a strip of greaseproof paper after greasing, and then top with a little more butter all over.
Like all soda breads, less is more when it comes to mixing the dough, otherwise it will toughen and be inedible. My rule of thumb is to mix the ingredients until they just come together and all the ingredients are incorporated but no more.
Make sure to score the top of the dough by cutting a line about 2 cm deep longways down the center of the loaf. I find that a knife dipped in flour works quickly and easily through the dough.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 277
- Sugar: 5.1 g
- Sodium: 926.8 mg
- Fat: 1.3 g
- Carbohydrates: 55.3 g
- Protein: 7.5 g
- Cholesterol: 2.1 mg