The Perfect

Your cut-out-and-keep guide to the fundamentals of cooking

Guinness bread

Part of what’s appealing about Guinness bread is that we like the affiliation of Guinness and Ireland. The Guinness does make a difference to the bread itself, though. It gives a nice, deep, malty flavour to the loaf. It also gives a nice richness and depth to the colour and, most importantly, it has a very unique flavour.

With any baking, the most important thing is to weigh your ingredients to the exact specifications of the recipe. That’s key with any baking. Get any element wrong and your results will be altered. Also, the oven must be at the correct temperature. If you’re not sure of your oven’s own thermostat, get an oven thermometer and then you can be certain.

I would also say that it’s important to source the very best quality ingredients: the best buttermilk, the butter, the flours.

It’s important not to overheat the liquid ingredients. If they are hotter than tepid, they will start to cook the dry ingredients — particularly the oats — too soon. That will create a porridge-like consistency before the bread gets in to the oven.

Also, make sure to use the correct raising agent. Household cooks often get confused with bread soda and baking powder. For this recipe, you need bread soda. And take care not to over-mix the bread, as it will make it tough.

To tweak this recipe, you could add a handful of pumpkin seeds or other types of nuts and seeds to give greater texture. Also, you could use a different type of stout. There is now a great variety of Irish stouts available, each of which will change the flavour of the bread.