The malty, treacly and slightly sweet traditional Irish bread: our resident perfectionist weighs up the options and comes up with her own perfect version
Beer and bread have a long and mutually beneficial relationship – before the advent of commercial yeasts, barm, or the froth from the top of the fermenting brew, was
commonly used to leaven bread
– but beer-flavoured breads are a more recent phenomenon. Though loaves claiming to contain lighter ales can feel like a game of hunt the hop, the rich, assertive flavour of stout makes it hard to miss, and its malty sweetness is a particularly good pairing with moist, brown Irish soda bread.
As
Cherie Denham
, author of
The Irish Bakery
, points out: “The Irish like nothing more than a freshly baked loaf and a pint of well-poured Guinness – so this is the perfect combination of our two favourite things.” A further selling point, should one be needed, is that this loaf takes just over an hour from start to finish, and barely five minutes of your time, which is more than it takes to pour a perfect pint, but not that much more. After that, you just need patience, and to remember that the best things come to those who wait.
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