I don't know about you, but generally, I do try to make my soups as luxurious and comforting as possible. However, when I found this bread recipe (Thanks Laura Templer) and tweaked it to my desires, I started making soup just as an excuse to shove more of this bread in my face 🤣🤣
It's midwinter here in South Africa, and how lovely it has been (aside from near apocalypse) to have had a good two or three years of heavy rains to fill our dams and water our spectacular landscapes.
There is no better time to fill the kitchen with smells of garlic, cheese and freshly baked bread. This recipe delivers bread that is almost a meal on it's own and fillings can be chopped and changed to suit whatever soup you decide to cook.
Variants I've tried have been spinach and feta, olive and red pepper, leak/ spring onion and sundried tomato but you can basically put whatever you like in it, even bacon.
The trick is to not overdo whatever extras you throw into the mix because your bread will not rise and will fall apart, making it very difficult, if not impossible to cut slices. You also need to leave the bread for some time, to allow it to cool and settle, for easier slicing. Making it a few hours before serving is recommended. Don't skimp on the cheese though, and be sure to add herbs and spices to your taste. It's a recipe that's meant to be fun and is really easy to make with absolutely no kneading necessary. You literally just throw everything into a bowl and then toss it into a greased and lined baking tray.
Lets Get Baking!
Preheat the oven to 180 deg. Celsius and be prepared to bake for approx. 50 minutes. Line and/ or grease your baking tray (I use spray and cook and baking paper for everything). I experimented with all kinds of shapes. This recipe even works in a muffin tin.
**Dry Ingredients: **
2 Cups all purpose flour
2 Teaspoons baking powder
1/2 Teaspoon bicarbonate of Soda
1 teaspoon salt
Garlic and chili flakes for extra flavour
Wet Ingredients:
1 cup of milk (any milk will do: I use full cream cows milk)
1 tsp vinegar (spirit, grape or apple is fine)
1 Egg
3 tablespoons butter (melted)
1 Tablespoon veg/ sunflower oil
2 cups in total of any combination of spinach/ grated zuccini/ red peppers/ olives/ bacon/ sundried tomatoes and be sure to drain excess water with kitchen towel, especially for grated zuccini.
1 cup of cheese plus a little extra to sprinkle on top: You can combine cheddar and feta if you can. Just cheddar on it's own is also fine.
Sift the dry ingredients together and literally gooi (colloquial for throw) all the wet ingredients and fillings together in another bowl and then combine the two. Work fast and thoroughly because that bicarb and vinegar will start reacting fast and if you leave it to long, your bread will flop.
Spoon into your tin/s and bake.
Once the 50 minutes is up (always set a timer), push a skewer into the bread and make sure it comes out clean. If not, stick it back in the oven till cooked through.
As I said before, rather overdo the cheese and be a bit skimpy with the fillings. Overloading the bread will mean it wont rise. The amount of cheese you use is weirdly flexible though. You can even stick a blob of cheddar in the middle of the raw batter just before baking for a ridiculous cheese centre.
Warning
you may catch yourself snacking on this one at midnight, but calories don't count in the dark 🤣😝😉💕
"Born-up-a-tree!"
