Wednesday, 22nd October.
Big pinch of Salt
Meanwhile I’ve been making bread, a ritual I fell into a few Decembers ago. The smell of flaky brittle flour sieving and turning between my fingys remind me of making brown soda bread in school. Digging little holes and jumping. For my 5th birthday my teacher asked me in front of the class, an raibh cáca milis agat aréir? - - - ní-shea. Bhí leite agam.
I told the class I had porridge instead of birthday cake.
There is porridge in this bread though!
Ingredients
350g Wholemeal Flour
50g Plain White Flour
2 tsp Bread Soda
50g Oats
500ml Buttermilk
1 tbsp Rapeseed oil or favourite oil
2 large eggs
Big pinch of Salt
Optional
Fresh Rosemary
Mixed seeds
Walnuts
Baking Paper Origami Instructions
Method
Preheat the oven to 170 celsius. Line your standard bread tins using your finest origami skills.
Mix all your dry ingredients in a bowl, putting the plain white flour and bread soda through a sieve and mix until combined. If incorporating any additional ingredients just add them into the original recipe, I personally eyeball all of these depending how nutty or rosemary-y I want the bread to be. The walnuts are fun!
In a separate bowl whisk your eggs with the rapeseed oil and once you're happy whisk in your buttermilk. Pour the wet mix into the dry mixture, giving a good heavy handed mix, make sure to lift the mix from the bottom so there are no pockets of dry mixture.
Put your bread tins in the oven for an hour and then after the hour is up remove the bread from the tins, peel back the baking parchment from the sides and stick the loaves back in for a final 20 minute blast of sweet hot air.
A gold leaf gilded framing fixing a Madonna but instead of a swaddled baby Jesus, a loaf of brown bread dusted with porridge oats reclines in her arms.