daily bread

 

a stall on Cambridge market last week 

 

Isn't it amazing that 3 simple ingredients, namely flour, yeast and water can produce such a wonderful and delicious array of breads.
Every country, it seems, has its own bread speciality.

I've mentioned before that I love making bread and although fairly simple it is not a process you can rush, but if you want bread in a hurry then soda bread is the thing.

Soda bread is most commonly associated with Ireland, possibly because their climate is not good for growing strong wheat flour which is needed for breads leavened with yeast.

I adapted a recipe from this cookbook from Yeo Valley.

The original recipe called for rosemary and olives, but since I was right out of olives, I used raisins instead.
Maybe not an obvious choice and not one I can claim as my own idea, since I have seen rosemary and raisins used in bread elsewhere,
but a combination which I think works well.

 

 I gathered the rosemary from just outside the kitchen door.

Most herbs are tender little souls which won't survive the winter, but not so rosemary which can be relied on all year round.

I also used spelt flour instead of stoneground wholemeal, simply because I had an unopened bag in the cupboard which was approaching its use-by date!

 

So here it is-

 

Soda bread with spelt flour and rosemary and raisins 

 

and very good it was too!!