This Week's Baking - Wholemeal Oat Yoghurt Bread

A lovely friend came over for dinner the other night, and - having had a very busy day and insufficient time to cook - I served her soup from the freezer. Soup not even made by me; it was my mum's minestrone soup which she had given us a gallon of a week or so before. It is terrific soup; but in order to maintain my self-respect I felt that I needed to actually make something myself.

So I did a bit of a cupboard and fridge hunt... I had wholemeal self-raising flour and yoghurt and a little bit of buttermilk... I figured I had the makings of a soda-type bread, but which recipe to use? Google to the rescue; I searched for 'yoghurt bread' and found this recipe for Whole Wheat Yoghurt Bread. So then I took the plunge and reworked the recipe to incorporate the ingredients that I had on hand:

3 cups wholemeal self-raising flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 tsp salt
2 tsp brown sugar
150ml buttermilk
350ml plain yoghurt

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Mix together the buttermilk and yoghurt.
3. Stir dry ingredients together thoroughly in a large bowl. Add the buttermilk/yoghurt mixture and mix until most of the liquid is incorporated. The dough will be raggedy, not smooth.
4. Turn all the bits out onto a clean work surface and knead together. If the dough still seems a bit dry (mine did), wet your hands and knead it a few times to incorporate a little more water, but don't over moisten.
5. Shape into a round and cut a cross on the top. Place on a sheet of baking paper or a baking tray dusted with flour.
6. Bake at 180C for an hour - should be golden brown all over and sound hollow on the bottom. Best allowed to cool thoroughly before slicing.

We didn't wait though. The bread was very tasty although it seemed a little doughy in the middle - but I think that's because it was still so hot. Another 5 minutes in the oven probably wouldn't have hurt though. Beautiful with the soup  (thanks mum!). It was also excellent toasted the next morning. None left now!