Café Cecilia's Guinness bread
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Guinness bread was the beginning of Café Cecilia. In a strange way, without it there wouldn’t be a café and I would have never learned how to cook. At a time when I was desperate to recover from depression, I decided I needed some time out from the music management company where I was working. My mother Odette showed me her recipe for Guinness bread, and I found that the meditation of mixing the bread really helped with the pressure and intensity of what I was going through.
My mum is from Ireland and the bread recipe is very traditionally Irish. Every meal at Café Cecilia begins and ends with a nod to this bread. From the bread plate when you first sit down to the Guinness bread ice cream for dessert, it always features. It’s slightly sweet, with notes of treacle along with the buttermilk, and I find it brings something unique to the café’s menu, as it’s hard to find good freshly baked Irish soda bread in London. Our menu changes daily, but the soda bread is always here.
Heat the oven to 340 degrees and grease a 2-pound loaf pan, buttering well into all the corners, otherwise your bread will stick.
Put all the dry ingredients, except the oats, into a bowl and combine. Pour all the wet ingredients into a separate bowl and stir together with a whisk until totally combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, then mix with one hand while keeping the bowl stable with the other, until all the ingredients are well combined and a wet dough forms.
Using your dough-covered hand, put the dough into the loaf pan, then wash your hands thoroughly. Sprinkle over the oats, then score a short, shallow line in the middle of the dough using a small, sharp knife.
Bake the bread in the oven for 1 hour, then remove and tip out of the pan. Return the bread to a shelf in the oven and bake for about another 10 minutes, or until it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Leave to cool on a wire rack. This bread will keep for up to 3 days.
