Baking A Wholewheat Soda Bread

Soda Bread is a little known type of bread that uses no sourdough or yeast to rise. Instead, baking soda is added as raising agent. This is the ideal bread to bake when you have zero time to wait for yeast to react, as you simply mix the dough and pop the loaf in the oven, just as you would do with a cake. It will never be my favourite bread as it lacks somewhat in elasticity and flavour, but it certainly is very handy to know this recipe when you suddenly find yourself in a pinch and need to produce bread in next to no time.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together 4 cups (4 x 250 ml) Wholewheat Flour and 4 cups (4 x 250 ml) Cake Flour. The Wholegrain flour adds taste to this otherwise bland bread and the cake flour prevents it from becoming too heavy. Do not swap the cake flour for bread flour as this will result in a very heavy bread.

If you ever find yourself in need of baking powder, and not having any in the cupboard, you can always mix yourself some by mixing baking soda and cream of tartar in a ratio of 1:1. This is the raising agent that we use in today's loaf. Add 3 teaspoons (15 ml) baking soda and 4 teaspoons (20 ml) cream of tartar to the mixing bowl.

Add 2 teaspoons (10 ml) salt and 2 teaspoons (10 ml) sugar. Mix the dry ingredients well.

Melt 50-60 ml butter and fill a 2 cup measuring jug up with milk. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix.

As you bring the dry ingredients together, you will find that you may need to add more milk. Perhaps as much as another 1 1/2 cups. Add the extra milk as needed. Be careful not to get the dough too wet.

Knead the dough for a few minutes to make sure that it is mixed thoroughly.

Prepare a large bread pan with non-stick spray and press the dough into the pan.

Sprinkle a little Wholewheat flour on top.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 °C for 45 minutes.

Remove from the pan and allow to cool on a wire rack.

I slip the loaf into a plastic pocket while it is still slightly warm to allow it to sweat a little, thereby preventing a hard crust from forming. This is a personal choice.

Enjoy with butter and spreads of your choice.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy the books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.

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