Thank you Mr. Slater

I have no idea why this picture is rotated like this, so apologies. Anyway here is a beautiful fresh loaf of soda bread, made in an hour, prep to baking with great thanks to Nigel Slater's soda bread recipe.
As happy as I am in the States, there are some things that I do miss and decent wholemeal bread is one of them (along with real cheddar). I don't know why bread here has to be sweet, and so full of chemicals, honestly it's appalling. After trying many different brands I have abandoned store bought bread and now only buy from local bakeries or now make my own!

This recipe is so easy and makes a light, tasty loaf that you can use for sandwiches or toast. Often soda bread is dense and heavy so this one is a revelation. There is no kneading or proving, the baking soda does all the work for you.

My advice for storing is avoid using plastic bags because it makes the crust soggy and you want to keep that crisp crust around the soft center. Instead, store in a bread box wrapped in a clean tea towel or in a paper bag. Better for bread to go stale than moldy because you can still eat it as toast use it for bread crumbs.

Best Brownies

THIS IS A YELLOW RECIPE

I have a good friend to thank for this recipe for brownies. A decent brownie is a very special thing and so often I find when I buy brownies they are either far too sweet of dry and spongy (basically like a chocolate cake). These brownies are dense, dark and chocolatey as any brownie should be. I use walnuts for these because I think the slightly bitter taste goes so well with the chocolate, but also because the brownies my mum used to make had walnuts in too.

8 tablespoons of butter

A 100 gram pack of chocolate – 70% cocoa solids

¼ cup of cocoa

1 cup of sugar

2 eggs

1 tspn vanilla (optional, I suggest substituting for espresso for extra depth)

Pinch of salt

½ cup flour

Handful of nuts

Pre-heat the oven to 160 °c

Melt the butter with the chocolate and cocoa

Add the sugar, leave to cool (if you're impatient, plunge saucepan into cold water)

Add the rest of the ingredients and beat well

Pour into a lined tin (I use a loaf tin)

Bake for about 40 minutes, until the batter is set and starts to smell cooked

Don't do the skewer test because you want the mixture to be a little undercooked