What do you do when you’ve already done the shopping, bought the buttermilk, made the soup and then you realise that despite a thousand jars in the pantry it seems that only four of them have seeds in them. How can you make the Six Seed Soda Bread from 101 cookbooks? Well you can’t but never fear, Four Seed Soda Bread seems to be just as good, without those pesky poppy seeds to get stuck in your teeth.
Soda bread is a really great bread to begin baking with especially for those with a fear of yeast. It doesn’t require kneading, or resting, just mix and pop it into the oven. Thirty five minutes later, the house smells amazing, the pumpkin seeds are popping like corn kernels and your guests will be astonished as you beam “I made this!”
Four Seed Soda Bread
1 cup mixed seeds – I used pumpkin seeds, linseed (flaxseed) and sesame seeds in approximately equal ratios
1 teasp fennel seeds
1 3/4 cups spelt flour
2 cups plain ( all purpose) flour
1 teasp salt
2 teasp baking soda
400 ml butter milk, plus a little extra
1. Preheat oven to 200C ( 400 F) and lightly flour a baking tray and a work surface to knead the dough.
2. Place all seeds in a small container and mix well.
3. In a large bowl, sift flours, salt and baking soda, then add seeds, reserving about a tablespoon’s worth of seeds to go on top of the loaf. Mix well.
4. Make a well in the flour, and add the buttermilk. Mix until just combined. Then turn out onto a floured surface and knead for just enough time ( less than a minute) to shape the dough into a football shape. (Well the world cup is on!)
5. Place the dough onto the baking tray. Using a serrated knife cut a deep cross into the top of the dough, going about two thirds of the way through the dough. Brush with additional buttermilk and then cover with the reserved seeds.
6. Cook on the middle rack of the oven for 35 – 40 mins until brown and crisp on top and bottom.
7. Cool on a wire rack. Best enjoyed on the day of baking.
Wondering what to do with leftover buttermilk? Joy the Baker has a great round up post with suggestions for buttermilk.
This looks delicious – and I would love to be able to say, “I made it myself!” I’m not sure what spelt flour is, but good old Google will clear it up for me.
Nice post – I love your photos!
Spelt is just a different type of flour. It’s one of the ancient grains that modern wheat evolved from. If you don’t have it, you could substitute with a whole wheat flour or even just increase the all purpose flour.