Category: Getting Together

We had loads of fun at Messy Church baking soda bread and making butter along with lots of other harvest crafts. The rest of the congregation were able to sample our efforts on Sunday at the Welcome Lunch after our Harvest Thanksgiving Service.

If you want to have a go at making soda bread, this is the recipe we used (makes 12 rolls):

Preheat your oven to 200C (fan 180C, gas mk 6)

• 300g wholemeal flour
• 300g plain white flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 200ml buttermilk
• 225ml milk
• 2 tsps honey

Tip for buttermilk: it can sometimes be tricky to find, but large supermarkets often have it in the Polish foods section (maslanka). If you can’t get buttermilk, natural yoghurt works too.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Add the wet ingredients and mix to form a sticky dough (you may find you need a little extra milk).

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and divide into 12 equally sized rolls. Place on a floured baking tray and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes until risen and golden brown.

If you want to make butter to eat with it, put some double cream into a large jar. Make sure the lid is on properly (!) and then shake, shake, shake until the butter separates out into a lump. Rinse and squish the butter under a cold tap to get as much of the remaining liquid as you can and then eat with warm soda bread rolls.