Irish Wholemeal Soda Bread

I loved that bread during my year in Ireland, and now, on my visit in July, it felt like home tasting it again. It has some sweet flavour to it, is just so soft but still rustic and is great with cheese, jam or just plain butter.



For 1 loaf you need:

• 300 ml buttermilk
• 1 tbsp black treacle
• 220 g plain wheat flour
• 220 g wholemeal wheat flour
• 1 tbsp wheat germ
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp ground salt

1. Heat the buttermilk and the treacle in a small saucepan until the treacle has melted.
2. Combine all the dry ingredients and then mix with the buttermilk-treacle-mixture.
3. The dough should be soft but not too sticky.
4. Grease a cake tin and dust with flour, then fill in the dough and cut it lenghthwise.
5. Bake the bread at 190 degrees (Celcius) for about an hour.
6. When it's done, there should be no dough sticking to a wooden skewer and the bread should sound hollow when you knock against the bottom.
7. Once it has cooled off, keep it in a linen bag or on a wooden board underneath a clean kitchen towel.
   

Chocolate-Nut-Biscotti

Sweet, chocolatey deliciousness. They're really easy to make and once cooled off and stored in a dry and airproof box, can be kept for a while. So you can take them out as a special treat for friends, or just have them yourself ;).

• 1 egg
• 100 g caster sugar
• 5 drops of vanilla essence
• 125 g flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 50 g chopped dark chocolate
• 50 g chopped almonds
• 50 g pine nuts
• 1 tbsp baking cocoa

1. Mix the egg, sugar and vanilla essence in one bowl and flour, baking powder and cocoa in another.
2. Meanwhile roast the chopped almonds and the pine nuts in a pan until they are light golden. Put them in the bowl with the dry ingredients.
3. Now, mix all the ingredients together. Take the dough out onto a floured surface and form it into a log of about 24 cm.
4. Put the log onto a lightly greased baking tray and put it in the oven for about 20-25 minutes at 180 degrees (Celcius).
5. Take it out of the oven and let it cool down for 5 minutes, then cut it into slices of 1 cm.
6. Put them back into the oven, baking them for about another 10-15, turning them once during that time.
7. Take them out of the oven and let them cool down (though they're really good warm as well).