Long holiday weekends are delightful – you can sleep in, take long drives, have a mini vacation, binge-watch your favourite shows, have leisurely meals, or you can do absolutely nothing and simply enjoy the down time. I plan to do the last on the list, with a couple of kitchen bakes thrown in.
There are a few things I want to try. I am toying with the idea of making tea buns with the rum fruits we use to make Christmas cakes. Another idea is to make cinnamon rolls but replace the cinnamon with cardamom (elaichi). I’m also considering a raisin-cardamom bread using a combination of green and black cardamom. Black cardamom is mostly used for stews and hearty meat dishes because of the deep flavour it imparts, so I want to play around with its rich notes and see how well (or not) it goes with the flavour of green cardamom. And yet another thing I want to try is making Sada roti stuffed with mashed, seasoned cassava. The idea comes from making stuffed pot bakes and aloo roti. What do you think of these ideas? I am not planning to do all of these things in one weekend, I have to pace myself as there is much to be done for the day job, like grading communication assignments, and reviewing final project proposals.
If you have been reading me for a long time, you would know that while I generally like to bake, I also do it to distract myself when I have a lot of my other work to do (lol).
This weekend I am starting with something that I have been meaning to make for years now – soda bread. Soda bread is a type of quick bread. I like quick breads because they are just that – breads made quickly without yeast and long fermentation processes. They are also versatile, not only to eat, but they can be made sweet, savoury or plain. The main reason why I have hesitated for so long to make soda bread is because I don’t like the taste of things where the only leavening agent is baking soda. I find the taste too intense. It is for that reason, I decided to use both baking powder and baking soda for this recipe. It worked out well. While I can still taste the baking soda, it is not as concentrated. I made a savoury bread (with ham and cheese) based on how I planned to eat and serve the bread. It works well at breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner or as a snack. While the bread can be eaten as is, it goes well with butter, soups and stews. If there is any leftover, toast it and you will have another level of enjoyment. And if you are looking for gourmet croutons, cut up the leftovers into cubes and toast them low and slow in the oven. They become wonderfully crunchy; you might find yourself snacking on them as you sip on something cool and crisp.
If you want to serve something different this or next holiday weekend for breakfast or as the bread offering with your meal, or as part of your tea spread, then try this ham and cheese soda bread.
Ham & Cheese Soda Bread
INGREDIENTS
✿ 1 pound flour (3 ½ cups)
✿ 1 tablespoon white sugar
✿ 1 teaspoon table salt
✿ ¾ teaspoon baking soda
✿ ¾ teaspoon baking powder
✿ 4 tablespoons butter (salted or unsalted), cold and cubed
✿ 2 cups grated cheddar cheese
✿ 1 cup cubed ham
✿ 1 egg, room temperature
✿ 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
DIRECTIONS
❖ Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F’
❖ Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease a cast iron skillet with vegetable shortening or brush with oil and set aside.
❖ Mix together the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and baking powder
❖ Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse meal
❖ Add the cheese and ham and toss to evenly distribute
❖ Whisk together the egg and buttermilk then add to the flour mixture and fold the wet and dry ingredients together to form a ball. Do not overmix. If there are any dry bits, simply take the mass of dough and press on them to incorporate. If your dough is sticky, dust lightly with flour so you can handle it.
❖ Transfer the dough to the baking sheet or cast iron skillet, and using a sharp knife, cut the dough making an X. Cut the dough to about 1 to 1 ½ inches deep. This scoring, while decorative, is mainly to ensure that dough gets cooked through in the centre.
❖ Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until brown and crusty at the top and the bread sounds hollow when tapped at the bottom.
❖ Remove the pan form the oven, rest for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.
❖ Wrap leftovers tightly in aluminium and keep at room temperature for a day, if storing for longer, wrap in cling wrap, then aluminium foil, place in a zip bag and refrigerate.
NOTES
✿ Canned or deli ham works well for this recipe
✿ To make plain soda bread – eliminate the ham and cheese
✿ To make a sweet soda bread – eliminate the ham and cheese, reduce the salt to ¾ teaspoon and add 3 – 4 tablespoons of sugar. Dried fruit such as raisins can be added
Enjoy!
Cynthia
cynthia@tasteslikehome.org
www.tasteslikehome.org
