Spelt Soda Bread Part Deux

Bless me readers for I have sinned, it has been a while since my last post.  I have been elbow deep in paint for what seems like an eternity.  Mr. Boo thought it would be a great idea to paint the hall, stairs and landing.  Now I only suggested this last summer, you know, a sensible time of year to undertake such a task.  Longer daylight hours make it easier to paint in the evenings and I am just generally in a better frame of mind for tasks such as this when the sun shines and temperatures fall somewhere above zero to accommodate windows being thrown open to allow the toxic paint fumes to escape the house.  He took on board my suggestion and then mulled it over for approximately 6 months before declaring on January 2nd that we should go buy the paint and just get stuck right in.

I have to be honest and say that with my belly still full from the over indulgence of Christmas and while nestled snugly on the sofa with a giant box of chocolates for company the last thing I wanted to do was paint anywhere in the house.  But the hall, stairs and landing!  That is the most awkward space in the house to paint and I still have nightmares from the 1st time we did it.  I had no choice though, if I don't do these things when he suggests well then I can forget about it for at least another 6 months. 

As we stood there in our painting clothes, brush and roller in hand I gave him his warnings, "take your time and don't hit the ceiling".  "OK", says he and off he goes.  I was on cutting in duty and he was on the big in between bits.  We assume these rolls because I'm the neat painter and he is the messy one so I try to keep him away from door frames and the ceiling.  As I diligently and pain stakingly cut in with my little paint brush he declared he was flying and moving on to the next wall.  I turned to look at his progress and there, on the crisp white ceiling was a big thick line of lovely fresh Antique Cream paint.

Me: "Erm, I thought I said to be careful not to hit the ceiling?".
Him: "I know, I didn't",
Me:  "Well then, what's all the paint on the ceiling there?".
Him: "It must be from the last time".
Me: "Well considering the walls were pale green and that is cream paint I'm guessing you did it just now".
Him: "Oh right, sorry, I'll be more careful".

In fairness he was more careful.  Careful to ensure that he consistently splodged paint all over the ceiling so that it had a lovely cream border.  We had to pay someone to come in and paint the ceiling, well I say we, I mean he.  He offered to paint the woodwork for me.  I thought it would be quicker and cheaper to do it myself.  He returned home on Saturday with the paint required and I got stuck in.  In a moment of madness I decided it would be a great idea to paint the spindles of the banisters and the sides of the stairs not covered by the carpet runner.  By the end of day one I decided that wasn't my best idea to date.  By the end of day two I felt it would have been quicker and easier to just move house.  By the end of day 3 I wanted to cry and to bake, I didn't have the time or the energy to do either.  By the end of day 4 while I was still standing with brush in hand at midnight I wanted to kill my husband who felt it was necessary to pop his head into the hall every now and then to say, "God that looks great now, I'm glad we did it".  WE?!  WE?!  At 7am on day 5 as I crawled out of bed to finally finish it I was also rather glad that we did it, it is now a bright and airy space.  Perfect to brighten the January blues and clear the fuzziness from my brain.  Now I feel ready to get back to baking and blogging. 

I have a little revised recipe today to ease back into things.  When the snow trapped me indoors recently and travelling to and from shops other than my local store was knocked on the head I felt I had to adapt certain recipes as I couldn't always get the ingredients needed.  One of the things I bake pretty much constantly is the Organic Spelt Soda Bread recipe that I acquired from Lorraine Fitzmaurice at an event in Bord Bia last year.  Unfortunately my local store didn't have any natural yoghurt in stock but did have buttermilk so I decided to give it a bash with this instead.  You can find the original recipe here.  I simply substituted 700ml of buttermilk for the milk and yoghurt required in the original recipe.  I found that it produced a more moist and doughy bread.  The crust on the sides and base of the loaf also didn't crisp up quite as much as in the original recipe.  Apart from that I was very pleased with the texture and flavour of the bread.  Next time I am forced to substitute buttermilk for the yoghurt I may bake the bread for at least 45 mins, or maybe even a little longer to see if this will yield a more crispy crust but for now I am happy that when the next cold snap hits I will still be able to whip up my favourite bread to accompany the hearty stews and soups needed to keep the freezing temperatures at bay.

I recently tried the bread with this delicious Beef, Bacon and Bean Soup, from Irish Beef.co.uk.  It was really quick and easy to throw together, perfect for a cold day when I would much rather be wrapped up on the sofa than slaving away in the kitchen.  Once I had chopped up the ingredients and popped them into the pot I just left it on the hob to bubble away and do it's thing.  It was a really hearty and warming dinner and the flavours were so delicious, almost like a Mediterranean style Irish stew.  Topped off with a thick slice of bread smothered in melted cheese it was unbelievable moreish and I was very happy to have enough leftovers for lunch the next day.  As the weather turns frosty again this would be the perfect dinner to warm you right to your toes and also a nice way to enjoy comfort food while still trying to stick to those healthy new year resolutions.  Enjoy!

Bord Bia Irish Food Bloggers Event Part Deux

I posted earlier in the week about the truly excellent event I attended last week in Bord Bia.  I left that day armed with an arsenal of new recipes and the first one I wanted to try out was demonstrated by Lorraine Fitzmaurice of Blazing Salads.  I had seen Lorraine many times on RTE's The Afternoon Show, where she regularly appears as their guest chef, but never formed any strong opinion on her either way.  Having seen her demonstrate in person though I have to say I have developed a bit of a girl crush on her.  She is totally lovely, very warm and extremely personable.  Her relaxed manner while demonstrating and talking about preparing food and the merits of choosing healthy, high quality ingredients would lead even the biggest can't cook/won't cook affiliate straight into the kitchen to test their culinary skills.

On the day Lorraine whipped up the following bread in the blink of an eye (honest to God, cross my heart and hope to die) so I decided to give it a whirl last night.  Mr. Boo is a bit of a health freak, when he is not shovelling chocolate into his gob that is, and is mad for a nice bit of brown bread.  I, on the other hand, could not really be described as a health freak, not with a straight face anyway.  I do however steer clear of bread as I know it is neither good for me or my waistline.  Now, when I say I steer clear of bread I mean the horror that is mass produced white sliced pans that fill the bakery aisles of supermarkets countrywide.  I am also not a fan of those really dry, crumbly 'it's good for ya' farmhouse style brown loaves. 

Good for me!  A rogue Sahara like crumb always, ALWAYS, finds it way to the back of my throat in an attempt to choke me everytime I eat a slice so, to appease my insurance company I avoid them at all costs.  You can imagine the horror that struck me when Lorraine very kindly passed around slices to sample last week.  'Ah crap' I thought, if I refuse it I will look rude, if I choke I will look weird, what to do, what to do?  I decided I didn't want to be rude so I politely took my slice and passed them on down the line.  The relief of it.  It was a lovely light, not dry, not crumbly, not chokey (it's a word ok) slice of deliciously healthy bread. 

Result!  Mr. Boo will love me (even more) everytime I whip up a loaf of this baby, and I can indulge in a nice slice of bread whenever the fancy takes me without the dreaded bloat taking over.  The recipe below will yield to loaves (using 2 x 1b loaf tins), it is a cinch to make and your tummy will most definitely thank you for it.

Blazing Salads Bread Co. Organic Spelt Soda Bread

This recipe is for 2 x 680g loaves

Ingredients:
510g Organic Wholemeal Spelt Flour
105g Organic Fine Oatmeal + a little extra to sprinkle on top
14g (2 level tsp) Sea Salt
12g (2&1/2 tsp) Bicarbonate of Soda
20g (3/4 tbsp) Organic Blackstrap Molasses
350g Organic Whole Milk
350g Organic Whole Yoghurt

Note: In Blazing Salads they use Moon Shine Organic non homogenised full fat milk from which they make a thin yoghurt to react with the bicarbonate of soda. For the purpose of this recipe they have replaced this with half and half organic milk and organic yoghurt. They have tried this recipe and it works well.

1. Preheat oven to 220°C.

2. Oil 2 x ½ pound rectangle baking tins.

3. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl sifting in the salt and bicarbonate of soda making sure they are well distributed.

4. Whisk together the Molasses and Milk, this will ensure the molasses is uniformly missed through the loaf.

5. Whisk yoghurt into the milk/molasses mix.

6. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry.

7. The ingredients should be well mixed together but only enough to bind the ingredients and not to strengthen the gluten in the flour. This should ensure a lighter crumblier texture.

8. The mixture will seem quite wet.

9. Weigh 680g into each tin.

10. Sprinkle a little oatmeal on top of each loaf.

11. Make a deep cut the length of each loaf.

12. Place in the centre of the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes at 220°C, turn the oven down to 200°C and bake for a further 30 to 40 minutes.

13. Check that the loaf is cooked by inserting a clean skewer that should come out clean.

14. Remove from tins and cool on a wire rack.

Notes:

If you don't have fine oatmeal to hand simply blitz some regular oatmeal in a food processor until fine, and if you don't have a food processor grind it in a pestle and mortar.