I’m from Ireland and like many Irish people my Nana made the best Soda Bread 🙂 When I got back into baking it was one of the first things I tried to make. I now blame my terrible oven at the time- but it was truly awful, I called it my first bread brick in my bread brick house! But I moved- had a better oven and discovered it was really easy- once your oven door closed properally! So here it is

My Nana’s Irish Brown Soda Bread- vegan style

You will need -> a measuring jug, cup measures or the mug you usually use for measuring (like me),spoons, a loaf tin, a sieve and a clean tea towel.

If using a metal loaf tin line the base with a little parchment paper and rub it with a little oil, if you prefer to use silicone you will need to put it on a baking tray so it is flat in the oven*

Preheat your oven to 220C / 425F

Ingredients

• Three Quarters of a pint / 450ml of Soya or Almond Milk (you can include a little vegan yogurt here if you like, makes a nice moist loaf)
• Two dessertspoons of apple cider vinegar- which you put into the soya/ almond milk
• One cup of brown spelt flour
• One cup of whole wheat bread flour (or you can do two cups of the whole wheat brown if you like)
• Half a cup of strong white flour
• A quarter cup linseeds i.e. flaxseed
• A quarter cup of other seeds. This time I added sesame seeds, one dessertspoon of ground linseed and two dessertspoons poppy seeds.
• One and a half teaspoons of bread soda i.e. baking soda
• One and a half teaspoons of baking powder
• A good pinch of salt- an Irish granny would throw a pinch over her left shoulder too
• A dessertspoon of seeds for sprinkling on top

This is really easy to make.

Measure your non-diary milk, add the apple cider vinegar and give it a stir.

Get a bowl and put your flours into it.

Sieve in your bread soda (baking soda) , your baking powder and your salt. Mix these into the flours.

Add your seeds and stir them through the flours , just so its evenly mixed.

Make a well in the centre and pour your soured non-diary milk in- all in one go.

Gently fold the mix together, just until there are no giant lumps . You need to act fast, the alkaline soda immediately starts to react with the acidic soured milk to create the bubbles. If you are too slow, too rough or over mix you will loose the air bubbles and therefor miss out on having a nice rise to your bread.

Pour the batter into your prepared loaf tin, it will be very wet so will naturally even out. Put three slashes across the bread (sideways). This helps the rise, through traditionally it is to leave the fairies out… Sprinkle your seeds on top. They add a nice crunch and prevent the top burning.

Put in the centre of your oven.

After five minutes turn the temperature down to 200C /400F. In my Uber fan oven it takes a total forty five minutes, but when I had a regular oven it took fifty five minutes (including resting time in oven). You will know it is done when it is coming away from the sides and is good brown colour. If you are worried take it out and using a tea towel tilt the loaf out and give the bottom of the bread a gentle tap of your finger, it should sound hollow. If you are confidant your bread is done turn your oven off and leave it in for another five mins.

Leave the bread to cool in the tin for another five minutes. Get a clean tea towel and gently take your loaf out of the tin. Loosely wrap your loaf in the tea towel, this stops the crust from being too hard. Let it cool completely before cutting, if you cut it too early the texture will turn gummy.

Great with organic coconut oil and peanut butter!!! X Aissa

* A note on silicone : some cheaper produced ones can contain fibreglass, from what I have read you can tell by twisting the silicone if there are white flecks or stretch marks then it has fibreglass in it.