Tomato and Cheddar soda bread recipe
Chef and food writer Claire Thomson, author of this recipe, says: "This is a double whammy – a home run for tomatoes. I’m a big fan of sun-dried tomatoes, tasting as they do exaggerated and so intensely of tomato. Used in this soda bread, they are a wonderful, candy-sweet foil for the sharp buttermilk. Soda bread requires little-to-no kneading, just enough to swiftly bring the dough together as one gnarled and cohesive mass, which you then drop into a tin – in this case stud with tomatoes – and then bake until golden."
Ingredients
- 375 g plain (all-purpose) flour, plus extra for dusting
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 1 tsp salt
- 0.5 small bunch of chives, chopped
- 0.5 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 80 g Cheddar, grated (shredded)
- 300 ml buttermilk, or natural (plain) yoghurt thinned with a little milk
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 8 sun-dried tomatoes (smoked are good), finely chopped
- 10 cherry tomatoes, halved
Details
- Cuisine: British
- Recipe Type: Bread
- Difficulty: Easy
- Preparation Time: 20 mins
- Cooking Time: 40 mins
- Serves: 6
Step-by-step
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/400°F/Gas 6. Line a baking sheet with baking paper.
- Tip the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt, chives and black pepper into a mixing bowl.
- In a jug, stir together the cheese with the buttermilk or yoghurt, mustard and sun-dried tomatoes. Mix well to combine.
- Swiftly add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and combine them with a fork. Do not over-mix the dough – it should be a cohesive, sticky mass, just holding together. Tip the dough out on to a flour-dusted surface and shape it into a rough-hewn loaf, about 35 x 10cm (14 x 4in).
- Place the loaf on the lined baking sheet and use a very sharp knife to slash it deeply three times across the top. Dot the top of the loaf with the fresh tomatoes, pushing some partially into the dough, and leaving some to protrude a little more.
- Dust with a little extra flour and bake the loaf for 35-40 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped from beneath.
- Remove the loaf from the oven and cool it on a wire rack for at least 15 minutes before slicing.
Extracted from Tomato by Claire Thomson (Quadrille, £22). Photography by Sam Folan.
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