Potato Wheaten Bread

I love all the local (Irish)  breads. From those made on the griddle  wheaten and soda farls, potato bread and pancakes to the oven soda and wheaten (brown soda) bread. I am a great fan of potato bread, called lovingly by locals as"Tatie Bread", which is a flat unleavened bread made with potato and flour. I got to wondering what it would be like to combine the potato with the oven soda and wheaten. Naturally I had to give it a go.

I made two versions One Wheaten Potato loaf (top) and the other my hubby has called the Ulster Fry loaf as the flavours are just like our traditional Ulster Breakfast Fry in a slice. They were both a great success I have to report. At their best straight from the oven and if any left after a day or two, just heaven toasted with lots of butter. Well I didn't say they were healthy did I?

Wheaten Potato


Ingredients

500 gms/ 1lb 2 oz Wholemeal/whole wheat flour
250 gms/9 oz approximately of cooked mashed potato
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
2 Teaspoons Cream of Tartar
1 teasp of salt
300mls milk
1 egg beaten
50gms/2 oz butter chopped.

Method

Pre heat oven to 200.C/180.C fan/400.F/Gas6

Put the potatoes into a large jug and gradually beat in the milk until you get a mixture resembling wall paper paste.
Tip in most of the egg reserving a little for glazing.
Sift the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt into a large bowl
Rub in the butter with your finger tips
Add the milk and potato mixture and stir until you have a soft dough.
Empty onto a floured work top and knead gently to shape with well floured hands as  it is a a sticky mixture. The potatoes make it so.
I bake mine in a well buttered 7 inch brownie pan but you could use a round cake pan
Slash a cross on the top of the dough
Glaze with the remaining egg
Bake for 30-40 minutes until golden brown and a skewer comes out clean.

For the Ulster Fry Bread replace the wholemeal flour with plain /all purpose flour and add two or three pieces of finely chopped fried smoked bacon  and two finely chopped scallions/spring onions to the mix. Omit the salt as the bacon adds enough.

Notes

I have given the method by hand but I make this in the Food Processor which makes life a lot quicker,easier and less sticky . Just whizz the dry ingredients then whizz in the chopped butter then add the milk mixture and whizz again.

If you don't have cream of tartar use buttermilk or milk soured with lemon juice as the bicarbonate of soda needs the acid.

For those of you who have never seen an Ulster Fry this is it. Not my photo as I usually only make a 'fry' when we have guests and a delay would not be tolerated. I wouldn't take the risk.

Photo courtesy of Ardtrabane House ,Giants Causeway, Co. Antrim

Veda Bread

There is a little malt loaf particular to Northern Ireland called Veda.

My hubby loves it. I have tried for years but have been unable to replicate it in the kitchen. Why? because I could not get the necessary dark malt flours. Well I could have but they only sold in bulk to the bakeries. Even at my most enthusiastic I don't think I could get through 50 kilos of flour. The other day I finally found my flour courtesy of Bakery Bits. A very good website selling flour and all sorts of bread making equipment. All I had was the ingredients on the loaf sleeve and my fiercest critic (Hubby) and the knowledge that hundreds of ex pat. ulster people have been searching for a recipe but with little success (Google told me this) Previous attempts with just malt extract and treacle failed to give the definitive flavour particular to Veda.
I explained to Rhyley what I was doing. The tension in the kitchen was immense as I took the loaf out of the oven and waited for it to cool. Enter Hubby who had a slice slathered in butter while four female eyes watched in apprehension as he chewed. He then uttered the words 'That's it' and watched in amazement as Rhyley and I danced round the kitchen. Success is heady stuff. I haven't had to buy a Veda since.
You can just make this with the malt extract and treacle and it will give a nice malt loaf but if you are a fan it takes the malted flours.

I make my loaf in a covered mermaid pan as it gives the bread a lovely soft sandwich texture. It can of course be baked in an ordinary loaf pan.

Makes one small loaf.
Oven temperature
200.C/180.C Fan/400.F/Gas 6


Ingredients


450gms/1lb White Bread Flour
1 teasp Roasted barley Malt Flour
2 teasp Nut Brown Malt Flour
1 teasp instant yeast
1 teasp salt
1 tablespoon oil
1 large teaspoon malt extract
1 large teaspoon treacle or molasses
200-250 mls warm water

Glaze (If desired)

A teaspoon of warmed treacle/molasses


Method


Mix all the ingredients together using 200mls of the water. If it seems a little dry add a little more water just a drop at a time. It should be a softish slightly sticky dough
Knead for 10 minutes by hand or five in a stand mixer with a dough hook.
Form into a ball and place in an oiled bowl covered with cling film 
Leave somewhere warm to rise for about an hour until doubled in volume.
Gently pull the dough out of the bowl onto an oiled work top and dimple out with your fingers to disperse the gas.

Fold the dough over towards yourself bit by bit firming each roll with your thumbs as you go..
When you have a sausage fold it into thirds like a busines letter.
Turn it over and tease the sides down and under until you get a cob shape.
Place this into a greased 2 lb loaf pan and squash it down until it fills the base.
Place the tin inside a plastic bag and leave for 30-40 mins until it has risen again. You will know when it is ready if you very gently shake the end of it trembles a bit like a jelly.
Brush gently with the glaze and bake for approx thirty minutes.
The loaf will sound hollow when tapped on the underside when it is done. If not pop it back in the tin and bake for a further five minutes and check again.

TIP
Oil your hands and the work top when working with the dough. It stops it sticking to you and everything else

Wheaten Scones

I know I have Blogged about scones/soda bread so many times but there was a scone thread running on Vi's pantry and I made these. The scones that had been made came from Rachel Allen's 'Bake'. Not her own recipe but a friend's. It had a huge mount of butter in the mix 4 oz/100gms. I didn't like the idea of that at all as I thought it would make the scones very biscuity. I don't usually bother with butter in scones at all but that is just sheer laziness. Silly really I mean how much effort does it take to rub in a bit of butter. I rubbed in 1 ounce/25gms. The recipe also called for cream of tartar which I don't normally bother about. I found it made no appreciable difference. Maybe it is required if the large amount of butter is used to aid the rising a bit more. I have recently started adding an egg to my scone mix as it adds a lovely richness. Rachel Allen is an Irish girl. Her recipe is the same as mine. Scones and soda bread are a way of life in Ireland not a treat to be made occasionally so the recipes are much the same all over. The one over riding rule is buttermilk and baking soda. Sweet milk and baking powder just don't give the flavour or the lightness. I find these as light and as soft as can be so I see no reason to change. Even when a day or two old they are lovely split toasted.

Wheaten Scones

225gms/8ozs wholemeal flour
225gms/8oz plain flour
or you can use all plain flour for plain scones.
Approx 250mls/9fl oz buttermilk or fresh milk soured with about 1 tablespoon lemon juice if you don't have buttermilk.
1 beaten egg
1 rounded teaspoon Baking Soda /Bicarbonate of Soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar or honey if you want sweet scones
25gms/1oz butter (optional)

Method

Pre heat oven to 200.C/180.C Fan/400.F/Gas 6

Sieve the plain flour salt and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl.
Add the wholemeal flour and stir to mix
Rub in the butter if using
Add the sugar if using
Pour in the butter milk and beaten egg and combine quickly . You want a soft workable dough.
If it is too wet add a little more flour. If it is too dry add a little more milk.
When it is combined tip out onto a floured worktop and form into a round patting it in shape very gently with your hands You need it to be approx. 2.5cms/1 inch thick.
Cut out with a 2 1/2 inch/5 cm cutter and place on a baking tray.
Pop into the oven for 15-20 mins until golden brown.
Cool on a wire rack with a tea towel over them.

Irish Barm Brack

This is a most common bread in this part of the world. It is sold in supermarkets and bakers up and down the country. It was traditionally made at hallowe'en. The word barm comes from an old English word, beorma, meaning yeasty fermented liquor. Brack comes from the Irish word brac, meaning speckled - which it is, with dried fruit. Hallowe'en has always been associated with fortune telling and divination, so various objects were wrapped up and hidden in the cake mixture — a wedding ring, a coin, a pea or a thimble (signifying spinsterhood). It is no longer just a Hallowe'en treat. A wonderful bread with egg enriched dough. Lovely fresh with butter or just perfect toasted. My husband has long been a fan so I have spent some time perfecting this bread and at last I've arrived. If you try it I don't think you will be disappointed.


Fruit

200 gms/6oz sultanas (or more if you like)
1/2 teasp mixed spice
strong tea - enough to cover the fruit
juice of a lemon.

Dough

250 gms/9oz plain flour
250gms /9oz white bread flour
2 eggs
200 mls/7 fluid oz milk
50 gms/2oz melted butter
2 tablespoons runny honey
1 tablespoon dried active yeast.
pinch of salt


Glaze

12.5gms/1/2 oz butter softened
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice.

Method

Place the fruit tea lemon juice and mixed spice in a saucepan.
Let it simmer until the liquid disappears. About ten to twenty minutes
The fruit will be nice and plump.
Leave to one side.
It doesn't have to be cold but it doesn't matter if it is.


Mix the flours and salt in a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer if you have a dough hook

Warm the milk and add a little of the honey.
Sprinkle in the yeast and stir.
Leave for five or ten minutes until the yeast is quite frothy.

While this is happening melt the butter and beat the eggs.
Make a well in the flour and pour the yeast mixture the butter eggs and the rest of the honey in.
Mix until you have a nice soft dough (not sticky though). Not too soft as when the fruit is added it will add a little more liquid.
If you feel your dough is too dry add a little water a teaspoon at a time but go carefully. You want to be able to handle the dough easily not have a sticky pile in the bowl.

Knead with a dough hook for about five minutes or by hand for 10 minutes.
Towards the end of kneading mix in the fruit by hand
You can add this at the beginning into the flour but the fruit ends up all squished and squashed and not a bit nice.

When you have all the fruit combined and not too much has escaped, form the dough into a ball.
Turn this in an oiled bowl so that the dough has a light film of oil.
Cover with a tea towel or cling film and leave in a warm place until it has doubled in volume (about an hour).

When the dough has risen, pull it out of the bowl onto a lightly oiled work top with lightly oiled hands. This stops the dough sticking to you and everything else.
Form it into an oblong and divide into two equal pieces.
Form these into two balls and place on a greased and floured baking sheet.
Flatten the balls slightly.

Cover with lightly oiled cling fim and leave to rise again for about half an hour.

Pre-Heat your oven to 200.C/180.C Fan/400.F/Gas 6
When the bracks have risen snip the tops with scissors or slash with a sharp knife a couple of times then place them in the oven and bake for about thirty minutes until golden brown and the bottoms tap hollow.

While they are baking, mix the spice with the softened butter,
As soon as you remove the bracks from the oven smother them with this spicy butter. (I find those silicone pastry brushes great for this job)
Leave on a cooling rack

Notes

I expect this would work with instant yeast in which case just warm the milk and add everything to the flour. I have found with enriched doughs that the dried active yeast gives a better rise but of course you must do what is easiest for you.

Use any dried fruit you like and /or mixed peel. You can add more or less fruit. Whatever your taste is really.

The kitchen smells heavenly while making this.

Enjoy

Traditional Irish Breads

It's Autumn. The leaves are gold and red. The days are shortening and there's a nip in the air. Just the weather to get out the griddle and make some local bread. I make all my own bread of the yeast variety and I love doing it. What is it about throwing together soda farls potato farls wheaten bread and pancakes that is so comforting. They are rarely given time to cool but the vultures are on them. If there are any left they are great in an Ulster fry. Trust me the English don't know what a fry up is until they have tasted an Ulster. I have guests come from across the water trembling lest they don't get their fix of an Ulster fry but that is another story and another blog. Farls, the word comes from the Scottish Fardel meaning a quarter or fourth part. It is used by the Irish to describe their griddle bread. The Scots got very posh and and started to call them scones. A griddle traditionally was hung on a huge hook over the hearth fire to make these breads hence the big hooped handle. They are a pain to store and a nuisance when the handle loosens as it will over time and keeps crashing down. We have moved on here and manage on hobs. A big frying pan will do. You can buy griddles with frying pan handles now. They are just very shallow and flat. The one basic ingredient you need to make these breads is buttermilk. If you can't get it easily just add some lemon juice or vinegar to ordinary milk and wait ten or twenty minutes. It makes a good substitiute.

Potato Farls

A great way to use up last night's left over mashed potatoes. You can of course boil them up fresh for the occasion but if you are anything like me you will always have left over mash.
Knead the mash until it becomes like a soft dough.
Use about a third of it's volume in plain flour.
Knead again to combine. It will become easier as the flour is incorporated.
Roll out into a circle about 1.5cms thick and place in the hot griddle pan .
Cut a deep cross in it to divide in four.
Bake for three or four minutes
Flip over to do the other side.
Remove to a cooling rack and watch them disappear. Lovely fried later too with eggs and bacon

Soda Farls

This can also be used as oven soda. It's not so popular as the wholemeal variety known as wheaten bread. Soda farls done on the griddle are the thing. They are so good split and toasted too.
Don't bother with recipes that tell you to use a pound of flour. Far too much. The farls will be too thick and take too long to cook.

12 oz/325gms plain flour
1oz/25gms butter
1 teasp salt
1 teasp baking soda
1-2 teasps sugar
Approx 1/2 pint 250 mls Buttermilk.
In a large bowl mix together the dry ingredients
Rub in the butter
Add enough buttermilk to make a firm but soft dough (think scone here) err on the side of dryness. You do not want it wet.
Knead quickly and lightly on a well floured surface and roll into a round about 1/2 inch/1.2 cms thick.
Place on the griddle and cut deeply into four. Cook for about 5-7 mins on each side.
Split one of the farls to check if they are done. The dough will be dry inside.
Don't worry too much if they don't go quite right the first time. Sometimes the griddle can be too hot or the dough too wet. A good way to see if the griddle is hot enough is to sprinkle flour on and it will brown quickly when the griddle is hot enough.
Remove to a cooling rack and cover with a tea towel. Eat them while still warm. Toast or fry them later with an egg

Buttermilk Pancakes

These can of course be made with sweet milk and baking powder but somehow they are not the same.

40z/100gms plain flour
pinch salt
1 teasp baking soda
1oz/25gms caster sugar
1 egg
1/4 pint/150mls buttermilk

Put all the ingredients into a food processor and whizz until smooth.
Heat the griddle or frying pan over a moderate heat then rub the surface with white fat (not butter as it will burn)
Drop tablespoons of the batter onto the pan spaced well apart.
When they start to go bubbly flip them over with a spatula and cook the other side for a minute or two.
Keep them warm in a tea towel while you cook the rest. They won't last long mind you.
If there are any left they are also nice with the Ulster fry when they are past their best.

Just make sure you have the butter dish to hand. It doesn't take long to churn out all three breads. Might as well since the pan is on anyway.

This is the link for the Oven Brown Soda./Wheaten Bread. This can be done as farls too but it is much nicer baked as a loaf. For some reason these farls are not so popular as the plain soda.

Irish scones are also made with buttermilk. They are lovely and light. You can find the recipe here.
You might as well as you'll have the oven on making the wheaten bread anyway and there will be flour all over the place as it is.