This comforting and quick bread by Gill Meller is all about texture and flavour. Great food for when it's time to hunker down and get ready for the colder, longer nights. This soda bread is packed with sweet roast red onions, rich buttery cheese, crunchy oats and nuts. Gill has used our whey from the cheese making process to bring the dough together. It imparts a wonderfully rich flavour in the bread.
Ingredients
- 2 large red onions
- 250g plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 200ml whey or buttermilk
- 2 sprigs rosemary, roughly chopped
- 100g Buttery Clothbound Cheddar, grated
- 25g shelled hazelnuts, bashed
- 2 tbsp jumbo oats
Method
- Pre-heat the oven to 200°C
- Peel and cut the red onions into 6 to 8 wedges and place in a medium roasting tin. Season well with salt and pepper and trickle with olive oil, then place the tray in the pre-heated oven and cook for 35 – 40 minutes stirring once or twice, until they are soft and beginning to caramalise. Remove the onions from the oven allow to cool.
- Combine the flour with the salt, baking powder, a third of the grated cheese, a third of the bashed hazelnuts, the sweet roast onions, chopped rosemary and the whey. Use your hands to form the dough into a round, about 20cm in size.
- Place the dough on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Scatter over the remaining nuts, cheese, and lastly the oats.
- Cut the traditional deep cross into the surface of the dough. This will help the bread to rise.
- Place the bread in the pre-heated oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until well-risen and golden on top.
- Serve warm from the oven with whey butter, a few slices of cheese and some good ham.
Recipe by Gill Meller.
Cheddar soda bread from Quicke's on Vimeo.
