No Bread Flour, No Problem ππ¨βπ³
I’ve not made bread for a while so I decided to try a new recipe this week. Instead of a normal cob (my signature bread) I opted for soda bread – the decision partly influenced by not having bread flour – only plain and self-raising.
Soda bread differs in that it doesn’t use yeast as a rising agent. Instead, I used bicarbonate of soda, and (in lieu of buttermilk), milk and lemon juice. Instead of bread flour I used 50% plain flour, and 50% self-raising. This also saved a lot of time compared to my normal bread bakes – no need for it to prove.
I found the recipe not in one of my recipe books, but by asking AI (ChatGTP) for a recipe. This bake is the result of that. It wasn’t perfect….At one point it did go slightly wrong. I poured all the milk & lemon juice in at once – but, just as when adding water to a dough normally – that’s not the way to do it. I had a very wet, sticky dough – which resembled a cake mix. Certainly wasn’t something I chould shape in to a bread dough. This was fixable though by, slowly, adding in more plain flour, a tablespoon at a time, until the dough formed.
Dough formed, and eventually, shaped, and in to the oven it went. It was rather a case of “hope for the best“, because it was collapsing on the tray. I did worry I’d end up with bread dough all over the oven. Thankfully not: Once in the oven it rose in to a perfectly formed (rustic) loaf of soda bread. It must have quadroupled in size in the oven.
I was very pleased with the result. A nice crust, very tasty bread (could get a hint of the milk which I liked) – it was really good with butter and jam.
I have saved the recipe – it is definitely something I’d make again.
FH.
