FOLLOWING the article about bread by Marie-Louise Backhurst titled ‘The Conquest of Bread’, which appeared in the Autumn issue of RURAL Jersey Country Life magazine, we received this letter from James McLaren, which we publish below:
‘I acquired some of the National Trust for Jersey’s flour a month or two back. I happened to be watching Tom Kerridge on BBC2 and picked up his recipe for soda bread.
‘I’ve tried this, and to quote Mr Kerridge: “It’s proper lush”! I made it as a round flat loaf, which I then cut into quarters – I believe these are what they call “soda farls”.
‘Split a farl, toast it and smother it with butter, and it’s a very good accompaniment to homemade soup. Conveniently it is possible to get local buttermilk from Classic Farm Ship, St Peter.
‘Recipe:
340g plain wholemeal flour
240g strong white flour, plus extra for dusting,
45g butter, softened
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1½ tsp salt
1 tsp cracked black pepper (peppercorns put in a mortar and bashed)
625 ml buttermilk
‘Preheat the oven to 200C / 400F ‘ Gas 6. Put both flours and the butter in a large bowl and mix, then add the bicarbonate of soda, salr and pepper.
Stir in the buttermilk and use your hands to mix all the ingredients together until a soft dough forms (you will probably need a bit of flour; the dough is very sticky at this point). Split the dough in two and transfer to two greased baking sheets. Shape into large flat disks and dust with a little extra flour.
‘It might look disastrous at this point, but do not fret – put the baking sheet in the oven and bake the bread for 45 minutes. It will come out looking like a proper loaf and it should be golden in colour.
‘Transfer the loaf to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.’
