It has been a while since I took part in Sourdough Surprises . To re-phrase, it’s been a while since I posted the results of my sourdough surprises challenges. Each month, I make the recipe, love it, take pictures but I never get around to publishing the results 😦 Well not any more!

For this month, we were challenged to use our sourdough starters to make Irish soda bread. Soda bread has been on my list of recipes to try forever, I mean what’s not to love about a giant scone? but some how I never got around to trying it. Enter this month’s challenge: A giant scone with our Harry’s magical touch , I had to try!

Irish soda bread is a quick bread that uses baking soda instead of yeast to get its rise. Which means that you can get all the joys of home-baked bread in about an hour. No fussing with yeast, no waiting for rises.The bread has a beautiful golden crust and a dense yet tender interior. The seeds add a wonderful complexity without being over whelming. The honey adds the mildest hint of sweetness yet, it does not prevent the bread from working beautifully with savory or sweet toppings. Right out of the oven, it is heavenly slathered with butter, yet a few days later, the bread is downright irresistible when sliced and toasted.

I know the words quick and sourdough don’t fit into the same sentence but in this case the sourdough is added for flavor only which makes it a great way to use discard or unfed sourdough starter

Five seeds Irish soda bread

Recipe source

• 2 1/2 cups Wholemeal Flour
• 1 1/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
• 1 tablespoon  pumpkin seeds
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds
• 1 tablespoon flax seeds
• 1 tablespoon nigella seeds
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sourdough starter, fed or unfed
• 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) melted butter
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 3/4 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

 line your baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, seeds, baking soda, and salt.

In another bowl  whisk together the starter, butter, honey, and milk.

Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients and stir to combine.

The dough will be stiff. If it’s too crumbly to squeeze together, add another tablespoon or two of milk.

Knead the dough a couple of times, we’re only doing this to make sure the dough  holds together

Divide the dough in halfin half, and shape each half into a ball.

Flatten the balls slightly, and place them on the prepared baking sheet.

Use a sharp knife to cut a deep cross, extending all the way to the edges, atop each loaf.

Bake the loaves for 30 to 40 minutes, until they’re golden brown and a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Remove the loaves from the oven and cool on a wire rake

Notes:

The 5 seeds I used happen to be my favorite combination of seeds to add to bread but feel free to change them or omit them all together