Baking | Wholewheat Garlic Oat Soda Bread … Instagram inspired baking #makehalfyourgrainswhole

“The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight.”
M.F.K. Fisher

Wholewheat Garlic Oat Soda Bread. Bread I baked after ages. Each word of the title appeals to me, yes, even the soda bit! I’ve read about this quick baking bread with no proofing/time for the dough to double for years. For some insane reason, I never baked one. The baker in me was always mesmerised by the challenge of yeast breads, also the joy of seeing the dough rise seemed exciting. Well as they say, been there, done that several times over, the yeast monster well tamed. That was 5 years ago, when the net wasn’t exploding with information and social media was still maturing! Soon one realises that yeast just needs to be alive. It works wonders if you give it enough time in a cuddly warm draft free place! It is quite piffling; there is truly no monster there.

Now baking bread is fun, therapeutic and stress free. Grab some good yeast and you are in safe hands. This is why when I saw the image of the soda oat bread that shared by Laura of My Little Honk Kong Kitchen on Instagram, it was love at first sight. Her loaf adapted from BBC Good Food looked rustic, moorish, earthy and so me! Also baking bread with soda was new for me. I had to have a go ASAP!

Oooh, did I tell you that Instagram is my most fave to be at? It used to be Pinterest earlier, but I am currently addicted to insta!

Soda bread is a variety of quick bread traditionally made in a variety of cuisines in which sodium bicarbonate (otherwise known as baking soda) is used as a leavening agent instead of the more common yeast. The ingredients of traditional soda bread are flour, bread soda, salt, and buttermilk. The buttermilk in the dough contains lactic acid, which reacts with the baking soda to form tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide. Other ingredients can be added such as butter, egg, raisins, or nuts. Ireland, Scotland, Serbia, Australia are some countries that have their own version of this quick baking bread.

It’s strange that a bread can come together so easily and yield such a moorish loaf on the other side. The Wholewheat Garlic Oat Soda Bread almost sang to me as it stepped out of the oven. Such a pretty bread. Pretty, pretty, pretty. Turned out to be darned tasty too. I had to play around with the ingredients a bit since I was out of plain flour, well almost. With only a few tablespoons in the bag, I used pretty much of whatever else I had on hand. Of course I grated some garlic into the dough. For me, savoury bread should must have garlic. Must!

A splash of extra virgin olive oil in the dough too added to the overall texture and flavour of this near wholegrain bread. Fresh rosemary, pink Himalayan salt, maybe even pink pepper all add nice touches to bread.  Slice it warm, drizzle with more EVOO, scatter some smoked mature cheese, some toasted walnuts, maybe capers, rocket too. Sit back and enjoy!!

Recipe: Wholewheat Garlic Oat Soda Bread

Summary: Wholewheat Garlic Oat Soda Bread is possibly the quickest bread you can bake. From almost a no knead shaggy dough that is quick to throw together, it’s our current favourite bread. Try this near wholegrain version to see how good quick bread can be. Recipe adapted from My Little Hong Kong Kitchen. Makes one 6″ round loaf.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:

• Dough
• 200g wholewheat flour
• 50g plain flour
• 50g oatmeal
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 15g extra virgin olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic , minced
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 250ml cultured buttermilk {approximately}
• Topping
• Fresh rosemary sprigs, Himalayan pink salt, garlic slivers, drizzle of extra virgin olive oil {with more to serve}

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Lightly grease a heavy baking sheet, or line with parchment.
   
2. Place both flours, oats, soda and salt in bowl of stand mixer {or in a large bowl} and stir to mix. Add the garlic, rosemary and extra virgin olive oil and stir again.
3. Gradually add the buttermilk to make a soft dough. {You might not need it all, or you might need a spoon or so more}. Just knead the dough until it comes together; don’t overwork it or the bread will get tough.
4. Shape into a round loaf, approximately 6″ in diameter, cut the top 2-3 times with a very sharp knife.
5. Drizzle over with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle fresh rosemary, garlic and Himalayan pink salt.
6. Bake for approximately 30-35 minutes until the bottom makes a hollow sound when knocked. If it doesn’t, turn over and bake for a further 10 minutes.
7. Take out of oven, cool on a rack for 15-20 minutes. Slice and serve with loads of sweet butter or flavoured olive oil, mature cheese, walnuts etc.

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Also find me on The Rabid Baker, The Times of India