Food with JP passion: Guinness & Treacle Bread
By JP Kennedy
John Paul Kennedy is a self-taught cook and an avid fan of collecting cookery books with a passion for good old-fashioned home cooking. his passion for proper family cooking stems from his TWO Grandmothers who were both excellent cooks, one of whom was a trained chef. JP promises to bring us plenty of family-inspired recipes and tasty treats while showing us how to get the basics right.
I recently watched Nigella Lawson make a version of stout or Guinness Bread on her show Cook, Eat, Repeat which she called her ‘No knead Black Bread’ and she served it with smoked salmon for Christmas.
It got me thinking I would like to research some recipes and try making a loaf of this bread as it’s a no knead no yeast bread of which I am always a fan of making! I took inspiration from Avoca having received, as a Christmas gift, their latest cookbook ‘A year at Avoca’.
As Ireland’s famous stout and black treacle goes into the bread, I prefer to call it Guinness & Treacle bread instead of Black Bread.
This is a little sweeter than normal brown bread with the inclusion of treacle but utterly decadent and delicious.
I recommend when you make this for the first time serving it with some smoked fish like salmon or mackerel or to dip into homemade soups! Also delicious lathered in real butter and Jam!
Ingredients: Makes 1 loaf
- 125g Strong white flour
- 1 teaspoon bread soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 450g coarse wholemeal flour
- 200ml buttermilk
- 100g black treacle
- 100ml Guinness / Stout
- 15g porridge oats
Method:
1. Line a loaf tin with baking parchment paper and preheat your oven to 200 degrees / Gas Mark 6/ 400F.
2. In a large mixing bowl sieve together the strong white flour, bread soda and salt. Then add the wholemeal flour
3. Make a well in the middle and add the buttermilk, treacle and Guinness and mix gently together with a wooden spoon. Once combined pour the mixture into your prepared tin and sprinkle with porridge oats on top of the loaf
4. Pop into the preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 170 degrees / Gas Mark 4 / 350F and bake for a further 35 minutes
5. Then remove from the tin and bake for a further 5 minutes until the loaf sounds hollow then you know it’s fully cooked
6. Allow to cool completely before slicing – this loaf will last for 2-3 days in an airtight container. For any leftovers you can pulse to make black breadcrumbs and freeze for another day!
I always really enjoy getting back into baking and cooking at this time of year.
It always feels to me like a new year means new beginnings so I like to try new and different recipes.
It always helps that I usually receive a number of new cookbooks as Christmas gifts and last Christmas was no different with three new cookbooks to research and get inspiration from.
I always tend to lean to quick, delicious family inspired recipes so I’ve planned over the coming weeks and months some exciting new recipes to share with you all.
I hope you all come on the journey with me and give these recipes a go! Next week I will be sharing an incredible recipe for Beef Bourguignon.
Contact JP On:
Twitter: @JPKCooking
Email: JPKCooking@gmail.com
Instagram: jpkennedy.kennedy
