Take On A Bake - (Off!) / Cranberry and Orange (Sweet) Soda Bread

This week I wanted to try a Soda Bread or 'Quick Bread', which I think was the first challenge attempted by the contestants this week. (Okay technically it was last week, but for the purpose of this blog it was this week - heh)

We are using Paul's  recipe this week - as in the contestant... not Hollywood, although they weirdly look alike??? (weird) I found that this recipe was so easy to follow and it was really quite quick too. Honestly, the longest process was the cooking time!

Anyway, for Paul 'not Hollywood's recipe you will need;

- 400g Plain Flour
- 50g Caster Sugar
- 50g Caraway Seeds (I found these at the spices section in my local supermarket)
- 50g Unsalted Butter
- 100g dried cranberries
- 175ml Buttermilk
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 Unwaxed Orange (only the zest)
- 1 tsp table salt
- 2 tsp baking powder

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6. Line a baking tray with baking parchment.

^ First step was nice and easy wasn't it - 'easy peasy lemon squeezey'. Onto step 2!

2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, caster sugar and caraway seeds. Using your fingers, rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Mix in the cranberries and orange zest.

Here we go, as always I will put images of my attempts at each step on here for you - to simply give you a vague idea of how it should - or kind of - look like!

This is the flour, salt, baking power, caster sugar and caraway seeds looked after being mixed together.

This is the butter before it ended up looking like breadcrumbs! I cut up my butter into little cubes simply to make it a little easier as it wouldn't be very pleasant to try and rub a whole block of butter between your fingers... *shudders*.

As a side note I always loved doing this at school when we did cooking - I don't know why there is something kind of soothing about the whole technique. I don't know. I'm weird.

Admittedly its not the best picture but is after rubbing in the butter.

Ta-da breadcrumbs!






Okay so all that is done lets go for step three!

3. Mix the egg and buttermilk together then stir into the dry mixture using a wooden spoon. Use your hands to bring the dough together, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface and shape into a ball.

 Basically this is just a very weird picture of the egg and buttermilk before being beaten together.

And this is the egg and buttermilk combo being added to the original mixture.

As you can see the cranberries have just appeared magically, this is because someone silly - A.K.A. me, forgot to add them when I should have in step 2. However, FEAR NOT, this didn't ruin anything, I just mixed the cranberries and orange zest in with the egg and buttermilk. It just meant a little more mixing in to make sure the cranberries were separated into the mix well.

The orange zest decided to make an appearance.

And now we have our soda bread dough, on the lightly floured surface, shaped in a ball with no missing ingredients, all ready to go into the oven. Hooray! Now we head to the final step - step 4!

4. Place the dough on the prepared baking tray and cut a cross into the top using a sharp knife. Bake for 30–35 minutes, or until risen and golden-brown. Cool completely on a wire rack before serving.

This is how my soda bread looked before being placed into the oven with my cross in the middle. Looks a little bit like a Hot Cross Bun doesn't it?







30 minutes later...

Voila! Soda Bread! Sweet Cranberry and Orange Soda Bread!





Just as a side note Paul 'Not Hollywood's recipe said to leave it in between 30-35 minutes, I personally had to leave mine in a little bit longer than that as at 30 minutes my dough wasn't quite cooked. However I'd just suggest cooking it for the recommended time and just keep checking it.

And that it for today! Yet again I am super excited by how this bake turned out as I've never made a soda bread before. I felt it looked nice in appearance and it tasted delicious!

Thank you again for reading and I hope you have a lovely day... or evening!
If you do try this bake let me know and see you guys again next week for another Take On a Bake -(Off!) post. ♥

Ricicle x