Soda Bread Made with Chickpea Flour and Cumin Seeds
Besan Flour Soda Bread with Cumin Seeds
Mamta
Soda bread is an instant bread, made with sodium bicarbonate or baking soda as a raising agent in place of yeast. Hence the name. It uses butter milk (mattha/chaach in India) , which when combined with soda bicarbonate, produces a reaction with lactic acid, releasing CO2. This is what makes the dough rise. Here I have used self-raising flour, but added some soda bicarb as well, because half the flour used is Besan or Bengal gram/chickpea flour. My Irish neighbour adds eggs to hers. That will be worth a try, but I have kept it simple here.
This is a handy bread to make when you don't have time to wait for the yeast to do its job. I have added some roast cumin to give it flavour I am planning to experiment with other ingredients, like I do in a loaf of bread; things like fried onions, garlic, various herbs, olives, sun dried tomatoes, chilli flakes, dry fruits, various seeds etcetera. It is traditionally made in a heavy bottom cast iron pan, but here I have made it in an oven. Makes 1 soda bread.
Ingredients
200 gm. self-raising flour
200 gm. gram flour/chickpea flour
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. sugar or honey
2 tbsp. or 30 gm. butter/oil (you can use lard)
1 tsp. soda bicarbonate
1 tsp. cumin seeds, dry roasted and coarsely ground
325 ml. butter milk. If you do not have butter milk, mix plain 175 ml natural yoghurt with yoghurt
150 ml water
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400F/200C/Gas 6.
Sift besan and self-raising flour in a bowl. Add salt, bicarbonate of soda and cumin seeds and mix well.
Add butter/oil and mix it with your fingers; lifting it high and letting it drop over and over, until it looks like crumbs (like you would mix for a pastry or mathari).
Make a well in the centre of the mix and pour the buttermilk bit by bit, mixing with a large spoon or fork, until the dough ?comes together?. It should be quite a soft dough, you may need to add a little more water.
Dust a clean work surface with flour and turn the dough out onto it. Knead a little bit to make it smooth. Too much kneading is not recommended. Make it into a ball.
Place it onto a floured baking tray and flatten it to approximately 2.5-3cm thick.
Cut a couple of crosses into the top, about 2 cm. deep. Mine in the picture are not deep enough!
Bake in the pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes. When ready, it should sound hollow when tapped.
Cool on a wire rack.
