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Week 3 of the Great British Bake Off was bread week. I think that was a good few weeks ago at this point but hey, here I am. I’m baking along with the show even if I’m lagging behind a bit. For the bread week, I opted for the soda bread and decided to use a simple recipe that I could then add lots of other yummy things to. Bacon, cheddar, and chive seemed like a good idea. In reality: it was a great idea!!
I mean, seriously. Look at this bread:
It’s as magical as it looks and you should probably make it ASAP.
Bread is one of those things that I absolutely love baking, and I’m so thankful once I’ve done it, but I rarely actually do it. So, I’ve made a goal to bake a loaf of bread every week through the end of the year. We’ll see how that goes.
This bread is really easy to make which I’m a big fan of.
The dry ingredients are sifted together before the bacon, cheddar, chives, and buttermilk are mixed in.
Once kneaded together, the dough is formed into a loaf and baked for 25 minutes to perfection.
It turns a nice golden brown and when cut open reveals beautiful pockets of melted cheese, bacon, and chives.
Happy bread baking!!
Bacon, Cheddar, & Chive Soda Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 ounces sharp cheddar, cut into small cubes
- 4-5 slices cooked bacon, finely chopped
- ¼ cup of chives, finely chopped
- ¾ cup buttermilk, plus a few tablespoons extra if needed
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, sugar, salt, and pepper.
- Stir in the cheddar, bacon, and chives into the flour mixture and stir well to combine.
- Add in the buttermilk and stir until thoroughly mixed together.
- On a floured surface, knead for 2 minutes. If the dough is overly dry and wont hold together, add in more buttermilk 1 tablespoon at a time and continue to knead for a minute.
- Form the dough into a round loaf and place on the baking sheet. Cut a large X into the top of the loaf going about 2/3 of an inch deep.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown on the outside and full cooked on the inside (test doneness by sticking a fork or toothpick into the center of the loaf).
- ENJOY!!!
I absolutely love this recipe! However, every time I make it, the center is never cooked enough. My husband and I laugh, saying Paul Hollywood would be appalled, squeezing it and saying, “It just turns back to dough.”
In all seriousness, any suggestions? I try adding more time and do some foil over the top, but then it gets overbaked on the outside! Thanks so much!
Yes, very much not done after 30 minutes even. I’ll be waiting another 10 to 15 at least I think it’s basically raw inside with no real color outside yet at 25.
After making a few of Paul Hollywood’s soda breads (of “Great British Bake Off” fame), I can say that this recipe is also very well formulated! It checks off all the boxes for me: savory, umami, soft, crunchy, a little bit of green, cheesy, bacon-y, quick and easy. I made this recipe between Zoom calls!
This recipe is a nice small portion. Many recipes tend to use twice the amount of flour. Instead of orange cheddar, I used white whiskey cheddar I’d purchased from Whole Foods. I’ll definitely be making this again!
I love your recipes. It is easy to make and delicious too. Can you please suggest a vegetarian substitute for bacon in this recipe. Thank you!
Thanks! I think your best bet is to simply leave out the bacon altogether
Thanks!!
You could fry up some tempeh with a tiny tiny bit of Liquid Smoke and see how that works!
no pueden decir q la cadena estadounidense nos esta ocultando algo porke en todos los paises hay restaurantes macDonald’s y mucÃ#eeos&±8230;yo si creo en todo esto porke es igual de lo q dicen de las brujas dicen q no existen pero de q las hay las hay!!…
Ups, i ment to post that comment on the pumpkin cheesecake. :D
oh! haha. That makes more sense. I was trying to figure out how it ended up runny
for the cheesecake– it will be quite runny and might even seem like it’s not quite down but it will firm up a lot in the cooling process. I think my oven cooks a bit hotter than the average oven so it’s understandable if it takes a bit longer. As long as its not still totally runny, it’s probably done and will really firm up once cooled especially after being in the fridge
I have this in the oven, but i had some struggles making it. Filling ended up so runny that i have been baking it now over 1 hour and now it finally starts to firm up. But i also tried to make a smaller but higher cake. Well se how it works.
that looks wonderful!