Perhaps you’ve read before of my discovery of soda bread. And I’m still at it. But this time, rather than baking a full-recipe loaf, I went half-sized. I’m doing this because a couple of weeks ago I tried a cheese and garlic loaf, and it didn’t turn out as well as I’d wanted. So now I’m sticking to the cranberry walnut, but tweaking the ingredients.
I started by halving the basic ingredients. And then, since the commissary only has low-fat buttermilk, I decided to add a bit over a tablespoon of olive oil, along with cold, chopped butter. I also wanted a little more consistent sweetness, not just that added by the cranberries, so I put in a spoon or two of brown sugar.
And I discovered something else last time I baked a loaf — my oven is miserable for baking bread. If I don’t cover the loaf about 10 minutes into the bake, the exterior seems to get too tough. So with this one, I was careful to do the covering.
And the result?
An excellent little loaf that was probably just a bit too much to eat all at once. But that didn’t stop us. I tried it with Irish Butter, peanut butter, and Micha put jam on hers (of which I’m not particularly fond). The bread itself was really quite good — less dense with a lighter texture (I think the size of the loaf helped it bake more evenly throughout). Maybe a bit more brown sugar next time, but it was still in the right zone.
So, yeah. I ended up baking dinner tonight. And next time, maybe I’ll try the cheese and garlic again. The smaller loaf will mean a failure doesn’t hurt that much.
What kind of cheese? That might make a difference. A hard cheese might affect the texture differently than one with more moisture
it was a touch of parmesan with a lot of mozzarella. Should have used more cheese and much more garlic and sautéed onions. that’s the cool thing about this bread though — as long as you don’t muck up the chemical reaction, i think you can try a lot of different variations. i’m sure there’s a book out there somewhere…