Chocolate Soda Bread (delicious, easy, and no-knead)

Do you want to make bread by mixing just a few ingredients? No kneading or knowledge of baking dough! This is the perfect quick bread recipe, in the form of chocolate bread today, but you can adapt it to your tastes and make it with olives, onions, spices... What will you make it with?

Ibán Yarza's soda bread recipe

One of the easiest and quickest bread recipes by Ibán Yarza is the soda bread recipe. It's a perfect option! It's a bread that doesn't require kneading or waiting and that you can enjoy as is (and it really does taste delicious!) or you can use it as a base recipe to make a large number of delicious recipes: soda bread with chocolate, with onion, with olives, with oregano, Provencal, with zucchini, with cheese... The soda bread recipe opens up a world of possibilities for you!

The soda bread recipe uses baking powder , not baker's yeast, which adds gas to the mixture (it doesn't ferment it like dry yeast does). That's why it's so quick to make: just mix the indicated ingredients all at once in a bowl, mix (don't knead) and bake. Just like you heard!

So, the recipe that follows is the original one by Ibán Yarza, and the only ingredient I added is chocolate. Feel free to try this bread with other ingredients. It's a perfect bite!

Ingredients

• 245 gr whole wheat flour
• 105 gr white flour
• 15 gr baking powder (about 3 level tbsp)
• 290 ml Water
• 35 gr Honey
• 7 gr of salt
• 140 gr baking chocolate*

*I used about 140 gr of dark chocolate to melt, but you can use more or less depending on your preferences. You can also use dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate or a mix of them. Dare to try it with the chocolate you like the most and you will see how delicious it is!

Bread knife with Pallarès mother-of-pearl handle and Bérard olive wood board

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 200 ºC
2. Using a knife and cutting board, coarsely chop the chocolate and set aside.
3. In a bowl, add all the ingredients except the reserved chocolate. Using a large spatula, mix all the ingredients until combined (you can also do this with your hands, just mix, don't knead).
4. Once the mixture is ready, you should have a thick but not compact dough. Add the chopped chocolate and mix until it is evenly distributed throughout the dough.
5. Prepare a perforated baking tray* (I used the Le Creuset pizza pan in this case, but you can use another one, or even a cast iron grill). Sprinkle flour on the surface and pour in the dough. You will see that it stays quite collected.
6. Sprinkle the bread with flour and bake it at 3/4 of the oven at 220 ºC for the first 20 minutes (heat from above and below), then soften it at 190 ºC for the remaining 20 minutes. If you see that it starts to brown on top, place a piece of aluminium foil on top to prevent it from browning too much.

Grades

• *In the original recipe, it is suggested to make the bread in a tall rectangular mould, giving the bread the shape of a loaf of bread or plum cake. You can also make it there, anything goes! The delicious result will be the same in flavour.
• I often replace part of the whole wheat flour with rye flour (about 100 gr). I like its more rustic flavour and the crust is a bit harder.
• This bread is best enjoyed when you take it out of the oven, still warm and with the chocolate melted. It is still tasty the next day, but there is nothing like enjoying it the same day.

Le Creuset pizza pan

WMF stainless steel bowl , Bérard wooden spoon , Revol textile salt container