Get out of bed bread

How many times do TV chefs bang on about making your own bread and how easy it is? Of course they're right - it IS easy and I love doing it but often I just don't have the time. I used to have a sourdough starter. In fact, the first few posts on this blog are about it but I rarely got to make a loaf with it. It wasn't practical for me to make one during the week when I was at work as it would have over-proved and if I was out of the weekend it wouldn't get a look in then, either.

I have since discovered the absolute joy of soda bread. I don't have kids but I imagine it would be fab to do with them as not only is it ridiculously simple but it's so quick - this weekend it was ready within an hour of getting up out of bed. It's best eaten on the day but makes good toast the next day

You need:

450g strong white bread flour
1 level tsp salt
1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
300ml buttermilk
tepid water - about 6 tbsp / 90ml

The buttermilk I buy comes in 284ml cartons but my digital scales tell me that if I scrape every last bit out, it generally comes to 300ml. Otherwise use a little plain, live yoghurt to make up the difference.

1) Preheat your oven to 200 / 180 degrees C (conventional / fan)

2) Lightly grease a baking tray

3) Sift the flour, salt and bicarb into a mixing bowl

4) Pour in the buttermilk and water and combine the ingredients with your hands or a wooden spoon to form a very soft dough

5) Tip the dough out on to a lightly floured work surface and shape into a round about 7 inches in diameter. Place on the baking tray and using a sharp knife, slash a cross shape into the top

6) Bake for 30 mins, then turn the loaf upside down and bake for a further 10-15 mins until it sounds hollow when tapped. Cool on a wire rack

I've only gone and bloody done it!

Yesterday saw the very first loaf from my sourdough starter! I'll be honest, I thought I had a dismal failure on my hands as my starter went from bubbling and yeasty to smelling like vomit. I wasn't prepared for this! I took the clingfilm off and the whole kitchen (and lounge) filled with an awful, milky, sourish sweet smell which can only be described as Eau de la Baby Puke. I thought the starter had died and started frantically googling to be met with a mixed bag of results. Some said the bad smell was the result of the starter being contaminated and to throw it out and start again. Others said that this was the smell of the bad bacteria being beaten by the good and to keep at it. I decided to keep at it for a few more days and that if it still stank in a week I'd chuck it. I'm so pleased that I didn't.

After a couple of days, the vomit smelled turned into a paint thinner smell and then mellowed significantly and is back to being yeasty and boozy but definitely bread like. The first loaf turned out great, and not very sour as I didn't let the dough rise for very long. Am now planning to give out lots of bits of starter to friends and get them into making their own bread :)