A SUPER QUICK AND EASY BREAD TO WHIP UP FOR GUESTS
I recently served this soda bread to a group of Austrians and a lovely Turkish girl who were doing voluntary work for the conservation of turtles on our local beach for the summer.
One day we asked them if they would like to come to breakfast and a few days later they turned up. (With a bucket of rescued hatchlings, on their way back to camp for the day as it was too late in the morning to release them into the sea.)
I had realised that having been away a long time from home our guests might hanker for a different kind of bread. So Soda Bread is what I served them.
Their reaction was so positive that I simply had to share the recipe further.
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup very liquid yogurt or the whey from the yogurt container
- 2 tsp vinegar
- 55g butter
- 3½ cups flour
- 1 heaped tsp sugar
- 1 rounded tsp salt
- 1 flat tsp bi-carb soda
- 1 heaped tsp caraway seeds
- Heat the oven to 200C
- In a bowl put in all the dry ingredients and mix the butter through it using your fingers or a mixer until it looks like breadcrumbs.
- Add the three liquid ingredients and mix until combined but do not knead more than 1 minute.
- Providing the dough is a soft, malleable consistency, place it on a greased tray or silicone mat
- (If the dough is too wet, add a little more flour or more milk if too dry.)
- Cut a cross from side to side in the top of the dough, this allows more hot air to reach the interior.
- Place the dough in the oven for 10 minutes then reduce to 180C for half an hour
- When done, it should be browned on top and be hollow when knocking on it.
- You can test with a skewer too if you wish.
- Cool on a rack. Best to let it rest minimum 30 mins before cutting.
The reason this Soda Bread made a post is because the Turtle Foundation Volunteers were so enthusiastic about this bread.
We were more than enthusiastic about the hatchlings! Great trade off!!
A NOTE ON ELUSIVE CARAWAY SEEDS
I was lucky enough to have a German friend bring over some caraway seeds for me. Strangely, in this wonderful country of spices, it is so hard to find this elusive seed in Turkey.
SCOURING THE SPICE MARKET
I recently went to Istanbul and scoured the Spice Market (Mısır Çarşısı) for Frenk Kimyon as it is called but to no avail. The seed looks very similar to Cumin (Kimyon in Turkish) but it has a far more subtle flavour and smell.The spice sellers will swear upon their mother’s grave that they are selling you caraways but I can assure you that sadly, they haven’t a clue about this one!
The spice sellers will swear upon their mother’s grave that they are selling you caraways but I can assure you that sadly, they haven’t a clue about this one!
If you wished, you could substitute the caraway seeds with fennel seeds. It has been known to also use cumin seeds but I personally find that flavour too strong for bread.
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