Damper for Australia Day

Happy Australia Day!  Well it doesn’t feel like much of an Australia Day to me though it’s for sure much balmier than one might expect of Toronto on January 26th 😉  to mark the occasion, I present to you: more bread. Damper (Australian soda bread), to be exact.  For those of you who read my blog regularly, you’ll know that until recently, bread and I were not the best of friends. Even soda bread and damper (ahem, literally the easiest things in the world, no yeast required!).  Then, a couple of weeks ago, I had two successful batches of bread… It seemed like a miracle!  Whilst I am still not sure that bread and I will ever be best buddies, I was encouraged by my recent success to try Damper again.  I literally Googled “easy Damper” and came up with this Damper recipe from Best Recipes.  I used a food processor to incorporate the butter into the flour mixture but apart from that, I followed the recipe to a “T”.

And was rewarded with this:

Ok, ok, looking good but really – the proof is in the slicing, right?

Oh look – it has a “good crumb” (can you tell I am turning into a bread baker with lingo like that?) 😉

Perfect on its own with a bit of butter…

Wait… what’s that in the top right hand corner of the photo…. {pans out}

Could it be….

Yup, if you guessed Golden Syrup, you’d be right. Damper screams out for Golden Syrup 🙂

This was SO GOOD.  Even Neil who has had to endure my previous attempts said “”I’d eat that”. And we ate most of the small loaf for breakfast, hot, one morning.  It was even pretty good the next day, toasted. Could I be turning into a bread baker after all?????

Happy Australia Day – Cheers!

(this one’s for my dad, by the way, who requested that I make and write about Damper last week!)

32 thoughts on “Damper for Australia Day”

  1. Yay so exciting!! I love bread baking above alllll other baking and I always want people to join me in my bread-obsession. Kind of like an annoying cult member 🙁

    That bread looks fabulous, I’ve never tried soda bread before so I’m having a hard time imagining what it would taste like in comparison to yeasted dough. Guess I’ll just have to bake some up for myself

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  2. Well truth be told, I’d probably eat anything slathered in golden syrup. 🙂

    Damn fine. Reminds me of the security issues P had bringing me a “brick” of GS through airport checks in the USA…..but I digress.

    Celebrating Australia Day here with a 2005 Wolf Blass Grey Label Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon – with special thanks to Treasury Estates for the “inside deal” on this.

    Doesn’t aprticularly go with the damper, but what the heck.

    Happy hols, every(Aussie)one!

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  3. Happy Australia Day – I am a huge fan of damper, all warm and slathered in jam 😀
    Your homemade version looks perfect for the festive occasion my friend!
    I made a green and gold cake as welll to celebrate!

    Cheers
    Choc Chip Uru

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  4. I have never heard of damper, but if it’s anything like irish soda bread, I am all excited for it! 🙂 Gorgeous pictures, looks delicious!

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  5. I bake my own bread all the time but never had a damper. I will have to try it some day. Your bread and all the pictures are great. Happy Australia Day!

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  6. I was going ask, “But, Mardi, don’t you and bread have a conflict of interests going on? One where you want the bread to do what it’s supposed to and the bread wants to just not cooperate?”

    I’m thrilled to see that the rivalry between you and bread has been resolved! This looks beautiful and tasty 😀

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  7. Isn’t making bread a wonderful process! I’m so glad that you are starting to enjoy it and with wonderful results. Your Dad must have been very pleased that you did this post for him. Happy Australia Day!

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  8. I rather prefer Mr Neil’s “beverage” pairing than the glass of red creaming soda we had with our damper!!!

    Store bought damper at that too I might add – hastily acquired after all the Australia Day celebrations were cancelled following the 280mm deluge of rain the previous day (not to mention the further 150mm in two hours the following day :(( – haven’t seen the sun for about two weeks now).

    Oh and definitely the golden syrup…………………..

    Reply

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