Baking with Michelle Darmody: Seaweed breads and biscuits
Seaweed can be used as a binding or gelling agent in baking or desserts, but that is not the use I am making of it here.
Here it is simply for taste, roughage, and goodness. You do not need a large amount of seaweed in your diet but some of it is very beneficial. It grows all along Ireland’s shorelines and has been harvested by coastal communities for generations.
Seaweeds are marine algae that generally come in three colours; green, brown or red. They are considered a plant and generally attach themselves to rocks below tide level.
Certain seaweeds can only be harvested on the full moon tides, when the sea is at its farthest from the shore.
Carrageen Moss pudding is a beautiful old Irish dessert recipe for sweetened, set milk, similar to an Italian panna cotta. Elixirs were also made from seaweeds to ward off colds and illness.
Simmer a handful of dried Carrageen in a litre of water, drain and add some lemon and honey to make a great remedy for the ailments of a cold. Also a big helping of seaweed in a warm bath softens the skin and hair and helps to soothe the mind.
Wild Irish Seaweeds is one of the Irish companies that dries and sells edible seaweed. Its flaked seaweed sprinkles are particularly easy to incorporate into your day-to-day eating.
The sprinkles can be used as a salt substitute on fried eggs, in salad dressings or on fish. Sea salad is one of the sprinkles that combines a selection of different seaweeds.
The company has an online shop and its products are also available in specialist food and health food shops.
Dillisk, or Dulse as it is sometimes known, is a beautiful aubergine colour when it is dried and is one of my favourites. It has quite a delicate flavour and works well in both sweet and savoury baking.
Dillisk and LinseedWhite Soda Buns
- 400g of plain white flour
- 50g of coarse flour
- 1 tbs of flaked dillisk
- 2 tbs of linseeds
- 1 tsp of baking powder
- Half tsp of fine sea salt
- 2 tsp of honey
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 300ml of buttermilk
Heat your oven to 200Cand line a baking tray with parchment.
Mix the flours, dillisk and half of the linseeds together. Sieve in the baking powder and salt and mix them into the flour mixture.
Stir the honey and the egg into the buttermilk. Then pour the buttermilk into the dry ingredients and mix until everything is completely combined.
Lightly flour your hands and divide the dough into six. Form each into a ball and place onto the baking tray. Score a cross in each bun and prick each quarter of each bun with the tip of the knife. Sprinkle the remaininglinseeds on top.
Bake for 30 minutes or until they are golden on top and baked right through.
Oat and Sea Salad Loaf
- 100g of plain white flour
- 150g of coarse flour — I use Macroom stone-ground flour
- 100g of spelt flour
- 50g of rye flour
- 50g of oat flour
- 1 tsp of bread soda
- Half tsp of fine sea salt
- 20g of dried sea salad seaweed mix
- 30g of sunflower seeds
- 300 ml of butter milk
- 1 egg
- a handful of oats
Line a baking tray with parchment and heat the oven to 250C.
Mix all of the flourstogether and sieve in the bread soda and salt. Stir these into the flours. Stir in theseaweed and sunflower seeds and make a well in the centre of the mixture.
Crack the egg into thebuttermilk and stir it well. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients and combine completely with a spatula or your hands.
Add a little more buttermilk if the dough feels too dry or let it sit for a few minutes if it is too wet.
The flours will absorb some of the liquid and allow you to shape it better.
Bring the dough together with your hands and tip itout onto the baking tray. Form it into a loaf and score a cross in the top of it. Prick each quarter of the loaf with the tip of the knife.
Sprinkle with the oats and place into the oven.
Turn the oven down to 200C and bake the bread for about 45 minutes, until the loaf is golden and baked right through.
You can use a skewer to test it or tap the base to see if it gives off a hollow sound.
