Wholegrain Soda Bread

Adapted from How to Make Bread by Emmanuel Hadjiandreou

Although the original recipe said to let the oat and milk mixture sit overnight, if you want to bake the bread sooner rather than later, you could warm the milk and pour it over the oats and dried fruit and let them sit until softened, which will take under an hour. Then add the lemon juice and other ingredients to mix up the loaf. I made the loaf once like this and found it was denser than the loaves made letting it sit overnight, but that may have been because I was also playing around with different quantities of the other ingredients. (I was fiddling with the metric and imperial conversions in the original recipe, which were somewhat different than mine.) Feel free to use another dried fruit, dicing them into pieces that are the same size as raisins.

Servings small loaf

1 1/4 cups (125g) old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup (60g) raisins or diced dried fruit
1/2 cup, plus two tablespoons (155ml) whole or lowfat milk, plus additional milk if necessary in step #3
grated zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup, plus two tablespoons (125g) whole-wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda

In a medium bowl, mix the oats, dried fruit, milk, lemon zest, juice, and salt. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, preheat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Remove the bowl of soaked oats from the refrigerator.
In a small bowl, mix together the flour and baking soda. Stir in the flour into the oat mixture until it starts to come together. Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured countertop and use your clean hands to knead and shape it into a cohesive round. (I added an additional tablespoon of milk in the bowl to get it to come together. There is a picture in the book of the dough and it looked wetter than mine but I made it three times and each time it was on the dry side, yet it baked up nicely. The dough isn't that fussy though. You just want to add enough milk so it holds together in a solid mass.)
Sprinkle some flour over the top of the round of dough, flatten the top of the loaf slightly with your hand, and with a sharp serrated knife, make two deep slashes (about 3/4-inch/2cm) to form a cross in the top. Place the dough on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 20-30 minutes. Check for doneness by turning the bread over and tapping the bottom. When done, it should sound hollow. Cool the bread on a wire rack.

Notes

Serving and Storage: Because this recipe has no butter, the bread is best enjoyed the same day, preferably warm. It can be kept overnight and is good toasted the next morning for breakfast with butter and jam or honey. It also goes very well with cheese.