Darina Allen: Nothing beats the smell of freshly-baked bread — try these recipes
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The tantalising smell of freshly baked bread is one of the most nostalgic and irresistible aromas for all of us, and even though I’ve been baking bread all of my adult life and most of my childhood, I still get a buzz every time I take a crusty loaf out of the oven.
So do all the 12-Week students at Ballymaloe Cookery School. They learn how to make ten to fifteen different breads while they are with us.
Soda breads take minutes to make. For flatbreads, all you need is a heavy frying pan or griddle. You don’t even need an oven, so they are also perfect for students who may have limited facilities in their accommodation.
Sourdough can be fitted into your particular routine. Here at the cookery school, we make a 48-hour fermented loaf that spends most of its time in the fridge, and is baked first thing in the morning, which works brilliantly for us.
The starter can be frozen or dehydrated which is really helpful, if your lifestyle dictates that you can only be a random baker.
Here at the Cookery School, anything from ten to twenty students from the group turn up to the Bread Shed at 6am for what is an extracurricular activity — how about that enthusiasm?
Many become total sourdough nerds, monitoring and comparing their loaves every day, endlessly in search of the perfect sourdough loaf.
Good bread is super-important for all of our families’ health.
I’m on record as saying on live TV that if I was Minister for Health, the first thing I would do for the health of the nation is to ban the ultra-processed sliced pan, and I haven’t changed my mind since.
Is it a coincidence that the number of gluten allergies and intolerances are growing exponentially? Check the label…
Here at the cookery school, where many students arrive convinced that they need to be gluten-free, discover that they can happily eat our natural, fermented sourdough made with organic flour.
When they eat ‘sliced pan’ from the shops, all the symptoms return.
For bread-baking at home, do go out of your way to find organic, chemical-free flour.
Soda bread is the bread of our country and is literally made in minutes.
Scones will be out of the oven in little more than 10 minutes, a crusty loaf takes 30 to 35 minutes, and a ‘tin loaf’ will take all of an hour - it takes time, but not your time.
The actual mixing takes mere minutes, so much joy for so little effort and nothing’s changed, the way to everyone’s heart is through their tummy… Don’t we all love Mum’s soda bread?
November 17 is National Homemade Bread Day, so let’s celebrate passing on the skills to all the family by making some crusty loaves of bread.
Baking is an exact science, so make sure to weigh your ingredients accurately, otherwise you’ll have a very inconsistent and disappointing result.
Here are a few recipes to get you started.
I’ve included the recipe for traditional white soda bread in response to many requests received, but there are many, many more easy and well-tested recipes, including a brilliant gluten-free chapter by Debbie Shaw, in , published by Gill Books in 2023.
Ballymaloe Sourdough Bread
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Excitement is building, don’t miss the Ballymaloe Craft Fair which runs over two weekends (November 15-17 and 22–24) with over 200 Irish craft and design exhibitors each weekend, including food and entertainment.
by ornithologist Seán Ronayne.
A beautiful, evocative book, superbly written in haunting prose.
Seán always knew he was different. Nicknamed ‘nature boy’ by the other kids as a child, he struggled to fit in and regularly escaped to the wood and coastlines around his home in Cork.
The natural world was his happy place and where he discovered his true passion – identifying and understanding birds through their sound and song.
At the age of 32, Sean received an autism diagnosis, and his life finally started to make sense.
In this book, Sean takes us on his journey.
From his adventures in the Sahara Desert, the jungles of Nepal and the streets of Thailand, to discovering the night sounds of Catalunya, and his mission to sound-record all the regularly occurring bird species in Ireland, Nature Boy is an inspiring story of love, connection and the healing power of nature. Published by Hachette Ireland.