Ard Bia Brown Soda Bread

Ingredients

  • 125g strong white flour
  • 125g brown flour
  • 50g sunflower seeds, plus extra for topping
  • 50g sesame seeds, plus extra for topping
  • 50g pumpkin seeds, plus extra for topping
  • 50g pinhead oatmeal
  • 1 tbsp baking soda
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 300ml buttermilk

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Grease a 900g loaf tin.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients, mixing well. Add the oil and half the buttermilk, stir well to mix and add the rest of the buttermilk bit by bit. You’re looking for a moist consistency but don’t want it to be too wet or sticky.
  3. Transfer the mixture to the greased loaf tin. Score the surface with a sharp knife. (Because we include a little white flour in our recipe, the bread will rise more than traditional soda bread. It needs to be scored to rise evenly.)
  4. Scatter the top with extra seeds and bake for about 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the bread comes out clean. Allow to cool a little before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

From Paolo’s Brown Soda Bread from Ard Bia Cookbook & the Ard Bia Blog.