Rosemary, sea salt and pumpkin seed soda bread

Rosemary, sea salt and pumpkin seed soda bread

A fantastically quick bread to make if you have friends coming round and want to give them something home-made with your starter/salad/cheese course.

The secret to light soda bread is handling the dough as little as possible once the wet ingredients have been mixed with the dry so be confident and quick in your mixing.

Ingredients

Makes one loaf

• 360g flour (I used 200g wholemeal + 160g white) more for dusting
• 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 3 tsp sea salt
• 2 tbsp rosemary, leaves picked and finely chopped
• 70g pumpkin seeds
• 350ml-400ml buttermilk*
• 2 tsp treacle

*If you don't have any buttermilk add 2 tsp lemon juice to 400ml milk and leave for 10 minutes.

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C.
2. Sift the flours and bicarbonate together in a bowl and whisk well with the fine salt. Then add the finely chopped rosemary to the bowl.
3. Toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry pan on medium heat for 4-5 minutes until starting to pop, then tip into the flour bowl and stir through.
4. Measure the buttermilk out and add the treacle, use a fork or a whisk to mix well. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the buttermilk. Either with a large spoon or a crab claw, mix in the flour in ever-increasing circles, starting in the middle first, until it forms a ball. The dough should be soft, but not sticky. Add more buttermilk if needed. You want to handle the dough as little as possible at this stage and get it into the oven as soon as you can.
5. Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat together to make a round shape. Score a cross onto the top of the and then move the dough onto a lined baking tray, and garnish with some rosemary and a few pinches of flaky sea salt.
6. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes. Serve with some delicious whipped butter.

Whipped butters

Great to serve alongside freshly baked bread when you have guests arriving. Butters can be made ahead and kept wrapped in the freezer for up to 3 months.

You will really taste the difference if you try using a great quality butter from a small dairy here.

The anchovy butter would be great served on top of steak, the seaweed butter on top of griddled fish and the miso butter on top of warm green vegetables.

Ingredients

Seaweed

• 125g unsalted butter, softened
• 5g seaweed, blitzed in a grinder/food processor (i used nori but others could work)
• ½ lemon, zest only

Miso/marmite

• 125g unsalted butter, softened
• 2 -3 tsp miso / marmite
• 1 tsp salt, optional

Anchovy

• 125g unsalted butter, softened
• 6 anchovies, drained and finely chopped
• 1 tbsp parsley, leaves picked and finely chopped
• 1 small garlic clove, grated

Method

1. Whip the room temperature butter with a wooden spoon, electric mixer or food processor for a minute before adding your other chosen ingredients.
2. Once combined, place the mixture on a square of parchment and wrap it into a log shape. You may find this easier once the butter has firmed up in the fridge for a moment, depending on how warm a day it is.
3. Keep the log of butter wrapped in parchment in the fridge or freezer and slice rounds off as and when you need it.