Celebrate Real Bread Week with these unusual bakes, from fig and honey sourdough to chai tea challah
Created by the Alliance For Better Food and Farming, Real Bread Week celebrates its 11th year in 2020.
Five Unique Bread Recipes for Real Bread Week
Created by the Alliance For Better Food and Farming, Real Bread Week celebrates its 11th year in 2020. Running from February 22nd to March 1st, this global celebration of independent bread making encourages consumers to choose buying real, additive-free bread from their local bakery, and making their own loaves at home.
There’s something immensely satisfying about making bread from scratch, plus there are few things better tucking into a warm loaf, fresh from the oven.
Making your own bread can be as simple - or as complicated - as you want it to be. From simple soda breads to challenging Challah’s, there’s a recipe out there for every type of baker.
If you are already a baking pro or want to try out your hand at baking for the first time, try these unique twists on traditional bread recipes. With Circulon’s fantastic range of bakeware, you’ve got no excuse not to treat yourself to some delicious home-baked bread.
Soda Breads
If you are new to baking bread, trying a soda bread is the perfect starting point. It’s easy, quick to make as there is no waiting period for a rise (this bread doesn’t use yeast), and you probably already have everything you need to make it in your cupboards. You don’t even need a loaf tin - simply form it into a round, pop it on a baking tray and you’ve got a loaf of delicious, warm bread ready in under an hour.
Soda bread makes a brilliant base to try out new flavours. Start with this cheddar, bacon and jalapeño soda bread, perfect smeared with cream cheese. For an Irish twist, this Guinness and treacle soda bread uses the famous thick stout alongside porridge oats for a sweet and filling soda bread.
A lighter option is a fragrant kale and herb soda bread, made from a green dough coloured by kale leaves. The perfect centrepiece for a vegetarian feast.
Sweet Sourdoughs
Sourdough bread has rocketed in popularity over the past decades, becoming the bread of choice for gastropubs and bistros across the UK. Created around a fermented sourdough starter, a loaf of sourdough can take a few tries to perfect, but the result is worth the effort.
Sweet sourdoughs are the latest trend in baking, such as this grand fig and honey sourdough loaf, infused with vanilla and honey-baked figs. For the perfect slice of breakfast toast, try this cinnamon raisin sourdough recipe - not only does it make a fantastic weekend baking project, it’s also beautiful when toasted and spread with oodles of butter.
Feed a Crowd With A Cheesy Tear and Share
Combining bread and cheese will always be a hit with guests, and our classic Cheese, Herb and Sun Blush Tomato Tear and Share Bread would make a great contribution to a low-key Saturday night gathering which everyone will adore.
If you love a bit of spice, this recipe for smoky jalapeño cheesy tear and share bread by Priya from the Great British Bake Off uses a dough infused with smoky paprika and tangy cheddar cheese.
Choose Challah
This braided loaf is rich, sweet and pillowy soft. Challah is traditionally baked to celebrate Hanukkah, but it is the ideal recipe to try during bread week if you feel like a challenging new bake. The dough itself is straightforward to make, the challenge comes in braiding the dough to create that distinctive golden lattice top.
Start with this simple challah recipe before experimenting with flavours. This chai tea challah loaf is infused with cardamom and is the perfect centrepiece for a Sunday afternoon tea. Challah is such a popular and versatile bread that there is a whole blog devoted to twists on the basic Challah. Try their recipe for banana chocolate chip challah, an airy dessert loaf which works perfectly on its own.