Food with Passion: Guinness & Treacle Bread

From Tallaght, John Paul Kennedy is a self-taught cook with a passion for good old-fashioned home cooking.

I recently watched Nigella Lawson make a version of stout or Guinness Bread on her recent 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! Perfect at this time of year and especially at Christmas!

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 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 have a number of go-to Brown Bread recipes which I have used over the years and always in the lead up to Christmas, I start thinking about which one I will make to adorn my Christmas Smoked Salmon on or Crab and Avocado on for the perfect pre-Christmas dinner appetiser?

This Guinness and treacle brown bread fit’s the bill. What could be more Christmassy than Guinness or Stout?

We are all super busy in the lead up to Christmas but this is a no yeast bread so it’s quick and easy to make and so delicious to eat.

Home-made is always best, give this simple recipe a go and your guests will be impressed plus asking you for the recipe.