Guinness Bread
When it’s freezing cold outside, a nice bowl of hot soup is great for chasing away the chill – and if you like having a couple good hunks of dippin bread with your soup, this stuff is fantastic. Irish Guinness bread is about as stout and hearty as it gets. A great bonus of making the bread, is that one loaf requires only half a pint of Guinness, leaving the rest for the cook – downside is, you’ll probably need to cook 10 loaves to get a few good pints under your belt.
One of the key ingredients is the wholemeal flour, not whole wheat. You can find it here: King Arthur Flour – Wholemeal It’s “a coarsely ground, soft red whole wheat flour. Ideal for Ireland’s signature brown breads” and packed with fiber. So much, that one slice seems to be equivalent to eating a dozen bran muffins. Easy to make, great to eat, and healthy too.
Makes One Loaf
Ingredients – English/Metric
- 4 cups/600g wholemeal flour – not whole wheat!
- 1 cup/150g self-raising flour
- 1/2 cup/75g porridge oats (rolled oats)
- 2 1/2 teaspoons bread soda (baking soda)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar (optional)
- 16oz/500ml buttermilk
- 6oz/200ml treacle (black strap molasses, if outside Ireland)
- 1 cup/1/2 pint Guinness
Directions
- Pre-heat oven to 170°C/325°F. Lightly oil a bread pan and line with parchment paper.
- Mix flours together with the oats, bread soda, salt and brown sugar. Be sure to smooth out any lumps with your fingers.
- Make a well in the centre and add buttermilk, treacle and Guinness.
- Mix together until all flour is incorporated: the consistency will be sloppy without being too wet.
- Bake for 45 minutes or until done. Remove from bread pan, tap the bottom to check for doneness. If it sounds hollow, the bread is fully cooked. If not, place back in the oven and bake for another 10 minutes or so.
