Crumbly Brown Soda Bread

biddywiddy

Hi all,

I've recently started making my own brown soda bread, and I've been using a recipe I got ages ago from a friend (I asked for the recipe cos his bread always turned out great). Problem is, whenever I make the bread, it comes out all crumbly and almost impossible to slice. The lovely crispy outer crust just comes away from the centre. The bread doesn't seem too dry or too moist, but surely I'm doing something wrong? Rough outline of the recipe:

250g Wholewheat Flour, 250g Plain Flour
1 heaped tsp bread soda
1 tbsp oil
50g bran
pinch salt
A shake of pinhead oatmeal, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and linseed.
1 tbsp treacle
500-600ml buttermilk

Basically I combine all the dry ingredients and then mix in all the wet ingredients. The mixture 'should resemble thick porridge'. Is this where I'm going wrong? Are some of the quantities wrong? Is the mixture not runny enough? The bread tastes lovely but it just looks so crap when you slice it! Help!

Malari

senelra wrote: »

Hi all,

I've recently started making my own brown soda bread, and I've been using a recipe I got ages ago from a friend (I asked for the recipe cos his bread always turned out great). Problem is, whenever I make the bread, it comes out all crumbly and almost impossible to slice. The lovely crispy outer crust just comes away from the centre. The bread doesn't seem too dry or too moist, but surely I'm doing something wrong? Rough outline of the recipe:

250g Wholewheat Flour, 250g Plain Flour
1 heaped tsp bread soda
1 tbsp oil
50g bran
pinch salt
A shake of pinhead oatmeal, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and linseed.
1 tbsp treacle
500-600ml buttermilk

Basically I combine all the dry ingredients and then mix in all the wet ingredients. The mixture 'should resemble thick porridge'. Is this where I'm going wrong? Are some of the quantities wrong? Is the mixture not runny enough? The bread tastes lovely but it just looks so crap when you slice it! Help!

I've been using this recipe for a few weeks and it comes out pretty easy to slice (once you let it cool!) and damn tasty, if I say so myself, although others have said the same :

155g plain flour
1 heaped tsp bread soda
1 level tsp salt
350g brown flour
25g of butter, rubbed through flours
1 tsp caster sugar
1 egg & 150g natural yoghurt made up to 425ml with milk

Obviously you can replace some flour with your seeds,or whatever.

olaola

If the crust is too hard, it will make the inside crumble when you cut it too.

Boardnashea

Try adjusting the amount of oil/butter/whateveryourehaving up or down and see if the crumb changes

Malari

olaola wrote: »

If the crust is too hard, it will make the inside crumble when you cut it too.

Yep, I would normally cover with tin foil half way through baking so the crust doesn't go too brown.

Dizzyblonde

Wrapping the bread in a clean teatowel while it cools also stops it being too crusty. If it's very crusty it won't slice well.

biddywiddy

Thanks for all the replies!

I do wrap the bread in a teatowel when I take it out of the oven, but never tried covering it with tin foil in the oven, must try that. I'm not sure about the quantities - maybe I'll try more oil and a little more buttermilk and see what happens!

Thanks for the recipe Malari - I'll definitely give it a go!

Tzetze

I started baking bread recently also. One of those "I-shoulda-done-this-ages-ago" moments, if ever there was one. Some great tips here, thanks.