Recipe for walnut and honey soda bread

THIS soda bread is made in almost an instant. The original recipe comes from the River Cottage Bread Book by Daniel Stevens. I halved the amount of honey after observations from the honey-phobic members of the family. If you like your honey, restore the original recipe and use the amount in brackets. Makes one small loaf that doesn’t keep, so needs eating almost instantly with butter and cheese.

Honey soda bread

50g honey (or 100g for the sweeter toothed)
100g walnuts
250g plain wholemeal flour
5g salt
2tsp baking powder
150ml water (or a mix of water and apple juice).

Preheat oven to 200C/gas mark 6.

Soften honey in a pan over a gentle heat.

Using a pestle and mortar, crush half of the walnuts finely and crush the rest coarsely.

Combine the flour, salt, baking powder and walnuts in a bowl, add honey and water, mix and knead briefly.

Shape into a round and place on baking parchment on a baking tray.

Cut a cross in the top and cook for about 25 minutes. Cool a little but eat while still warm.