Three Grain Brown Soda Bread

I actually didn't start off here aiming for a traditional Irish brown soda bread but basically that's what I got - and a very nice tasting one at that! I got this recipe from one of my favourite cookbooks, 'The Great Scandinavian Baking Book' by Beatrice Ojakangas where it was listed as "Brunbraud" or "Icelandic Three-Grain Brown Bread". A read of the ingredients indicated this was essentially a classic Irish brown soda bread, with a few twists. There is brown sugar in this, just enough so that you can taste a hint of sweetness but not enough to make this a sweet bread and the addition of rye flour gives it a slightly more Scandinavian air about it.

In the end this made a really nice, perfectly textured brown bread, something I've been after for awhile now. You can buy *some* dairy free brown soda breads here in Ireland but this was by far better than any I have tried. It goes beautifully with soup, I made up my Newfoundland Pea Soup (without the doughboys) to go with this which was a lovely combination and a very hearty meal!

It would also be great with any sort of creamy white based soups like Cauliflower or Potato, anything thick and creamy really. I actually didn't make it to go with the previous post of Potato and Leek soup but it's made for it really! It's also great on it's own or toasted and spread with vegan butter and peanut butter, great at breakfast and really sets you up for the day :-) I've made the usual vegan adjustments here and have halved the recipe to just make one loaf and have also measured out the weights.

Three Grain Brown Soda Bread:

50g light muscovado sugar (1/4 cup packed brown sugar)
50g vegan butter ( 1/4 cup)
50g oats ( 1/2 cup)
80g wholegrain rye flour (1/2 cup)
170g wholemeal flour (1 cup whole wheat)
150g plain white flour ( 1 cup)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
300ml unsweetened soy milk (1 1/4 cups)
1 1/4 Tbsp lemon juice or vinegar

Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F and lightly grease a loaf pan with vegan butter.

Cream the butter and sugar together until well mixed. In another bowl mix together the dry ingredients. In a measuring cup measure out the milk and stir in the lemon juice or vinegar and leave to curdle slightly - this is your buttermilk.

Add the dry ingredients and the "buttermilk" to the creamed mixture and mix with a wooden spoon until well mixed. Scrape it all into the loaf pan and level the top - the mixture will be thick. Bake for about 1 hour, until golden and firm on top and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Remove from the pan onto a wire rack to fully cool.

♥

Nutritional Information: per 100g.

Calories: 280

Protein: 8.4g

Fat: 5.5g

Sat Fat: 1.1g

Fibre: 5.5g

Carbs: 50.4g

Sugar: 6.6g

Sodium: 532mg

Calcium: 75.3mg

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