Inspired By Wendy

This morning, inspired by Wendy and her fabulous baking skills, I put my own (not yet highly developed) ones to the test by baking my very first Soda Bread.

What better occupation after a healthy swim on a glorious April's day can you think of ?

I won't bore you with a detailed photo reportage of the event ...

I'll simply show (off!) my result :)

straight out of the oven .... that's what my two specimen looked like -

notice that they are not as equally sized as Wendy's are .. :)

and that was not all of the differences :)

Although I noticed that I wasn't able to cut through the dough as easily to mark the cross as deeply as Wendy did,

I could still effortlessly break off the quarters .. no hammer needed :)

surprisingly, the bread itself tasted delicious with butter and maple syrup -

it just was not as fluffy as Wendy's!

I think I went too easy with the buttermilk ...

and my distribution of flour wasn't as equal as Wendy's - I put a bit more wholemeal flour (i.e 300gr as apposed to 250gr) and therefore only 200gr of white flour as opposed to 250gr. -It still added up to the desired 500gr of flour - but, I guess, the wholemeal flour is heavier, needing more liquid to help bind and make it as fluffy as it should be.

The whole experience was still a lot of fun! I'm already looking forward to ironing out my mistakes and having another go.

So thanx again for the inspiration Wendy!

Should any of you want to have a go at baking Soda Bread too, I highly recommend you reacquaint yourselves with Wendy's baking method which you'll find detailed on this earlier blog entry!