Make your own bread and butter
I love baking bread with the girls especially this time of year when the days are getting shorter and slower. There is nothing quite like the smell of bread warming through the house. Sometimes though there is just not enough time in the day to wait patiently for fresh yeasted bread to rise and bake so I came up with this super easy and oh so quick soda bread recipe. The acid in the buttermilk reacts with the soda creating the bread to rise and it also gives such a creamy flavour too. We top ours with a mixture of nourishing seeds (pumpkin and sesame) but other seeds work well too. Golden linseeds look so autumnal scattered on top. It literally takes ten minutes to pull together and a further 30 minutes in the oven. It’s super simple and so delicious.
Ingredients:-
-250g plain white flour
-1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
-1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
-About 250ml buttermilk
Method:-
Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Gradually pour in the buttermilk and mix together using a metal spoon until you have a sticky dough. Tip the dough out onto a floured surface and knead lightly for a minute and then form into a round. Pop the round onto a floured baking tray (or a piece of greaseproof paper) and using a sharp, serrated knife, cut a cross in the dough. Slightly pull the cross apart and brush the top with a little leftover buttermilk and sprinkle your seed mixture over. Bake in a preheated oven 200 degree C for 30 minutes until the bread is golden and it sounds hollow when tapped on the base. Allow to cool slightly for ease of cutting and serve with lashings of our delicious homemade butter.
To make the butter you will need 600ml tub of double cream. Simple pour this into a jam jar (we use the Bonne Maman jars) and literally shake! You’ll need a whole lot of muscle power but kids love this part and they find it fascinating seeing how the cream turns to butter. It will take a good ten to fifteen minutes to see the liquid move into a thinner and whiter consistency and a ball of butter will be formed. Take the butter out of the jar and give it a good squeeze. Pop it into a small bowl and add some maldon sea salt to it. You can also add chopped fresh herbs such as chives or even exchange the sea salt to maldon smoked sea salt which is utterly delicious. If you have any baking paper, cut it into a square and place a small ball of butter into the centre of the paper. Twist each end and you have a super cute butter ‘sweetie’!
Have fun!
Vanessa x