Make this amazing Crunchy Loaf in ten minutes
This must be the easiest ever, bread to make. You don't even need kitchen aids, if you have, all the better, but they're not essential; in fact a small-ish child can be used instead, they love the messy mixing!
Ingredients
500 gm Spelt flour. Wholemeal will do just as well.
450 ml Natural Yoghurt.
1 x Dessertspoonful Cider Vinegar.
1 heaped x Teaspoonful Sea Salt
1 x heaped Teaspoonful Bicarbonate of Soda
A splash of Olive Oil, for greasing.
Equipment
A small child, optional
Loaf tin 20 x 10 cm, optional
Baking Parchment, optional
Large mixing bowl (My Grannie used to call them Bread Mugs!)
Method
Put a baking tray on the middle shelf of the oven and set the temperature to 200 degrees C. Then if used bring the small child into the kitchen and explain that he or she is very welcome to get incredibly messy.
Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.
Add the cider vinegar to the yoghurt and also mix thoroughly.
Add the yoghurt/vinegar mixture to the dry mix and stir well; at this point decide whether to use a mixer, your own hands or the small child for this.
Once the ingredients are well incorporated (at this stage the mixture will be quite "sloppy") and if used, the child will be having fun - not too much though*, the dough can then either be moulded into a rounded 'cob' shaped heap and put into the centre of a baking tray that has been covered in lightly floured baking parchment; or loaded into an oiled loaf tin.
In either case put the tray or tin into the oven, setting the timer for 35 minutes.
Remove the messy small child from the kitchen and clean it, explaining that he or she can have a delicious slice of buttery warm bread after about 45 to 50 minutes.
Check that the bread is cooked after 35 minutes or so. A sure fire way to see whether the loaf is cooked is to tap on the bottom of the loaf with a knuckle and if the sounds hollow, the bread is ready. If the sound is still dull, I tend to take the loaf out of its tin if one has been used, and put it back in the oven inverted, for ten minutes more. Then keep checking.
Remove the cooked bread from the tray or tin and put it to cool on a wire rack.
*This Bread uses Bicarbonate of Soda rather than yeast as a leavening agent. The Bicarbonate of Soda reacts with the acidic yogurt/vinegar mix to create carbon dioxide, which leavens the dough rapidly, unlike yeast which works slowly. Hence prep time should be as short as possible.
A delicious savoury variant of this loaf is to add half a finely chopped shallot and an equal quantity of spicy chorizo to the mix. When I do this I tend to increase the baking time by approximately ten minutes to allow for the extra moisture that cooks out of the onion. I haven't tried Olives yet but I'm almost certain they would work too.
For a healthy breakfast, toast a thick slice, well, and top with a soft poached egg, you'll not need butter or if you do, lash it on and sod the calories just this once!
