Cheese and chive soda bread recipe

We're certain this cheese and chive soda bread will soon become a regular bake of yours as it's easy and delicious.

Our cheese and chive soda bread can be enjoyed straight from the oven and is best served with a bowl of soup or just slathered with salted butter. This cheese and chive soda bread looks impressive but it's ready in three easy steps with no proving time and minimal kneading required.

Ingredients

• 200g natural yoghurt
• 80ml Guinness or another stout
• 230g plain flour
• 100g plain wholemeal flour
• 1/4tsp sea salt
• 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1tbsp pumpkin seeds, plus extra for the top
• A handful of chives, snipped into cm lengths
• 60g leftover cheese, grated or crumbled we used a mixture of Colston Bassett and Cheddar

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200C/Gas 6. In a jug combine the yoghurt and stout. Put the flours, salt, bicarbonate of soda, seeds, chives and three quarters of the cheese in a bowl and add the yoghurt mixture. Mix until just combined, don't worry about floury patches at this stage. Set aside for about 10 mins, doing this will make the dough more workable.
2. Knead the dough until smooth, it will be quite sticky. With floury hands shape the sticky dough into a ball and place onto a well-floured baking tray.
3. Flatten down the top to create a thick disk and sprinkle over the remaining cheese and seeds. Use the side of a floured wooden spoon to press a deep cross into the top of the loaf. Bake for 30 mins. Transfer to a wire rack to cook.

Top tips for making cheese and chive soda bread:

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• This is a brilliant recipe for using up any scraps of cheese you have in the fridge. Cheddar is our go-to but experiment with your favourites
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• If you don't eat all the soda bread on the day you bake it, try toasting it and serving it with crispy bacon and a poached or fried egg for brunch
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• You can also cut leftover soda bread into chunks, toss it with a little olive oil and salt. Then bake in the oven (180C/Gas 4) for around 10mins until golden and crispy to make some delicious croutons
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What's the difference between soda bread and normal bread?

The difference here from a regular loaf is that soda bread uses bicarbonate of soda, as opposed to yeast, as the raising agent. So just like when it’s used in cakes it doesn’t require time proving in order to activate. 

Related features:

Classic soda bread

Guinness soda bread

Marmite and cheese tear and share soda bread