I’ve made my Oaty Lockdown Loaf quite a few times now, but it’s generally a job for the weekend as it takes quite a few hours from start to finish, so I was looking for a quicker recipe to try for a midweek loaf.

I like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Seedy Rye Soda Bread from his River Cottage Light and Easy book, but I didn’t have any seeds or rye flour! I did, however, have spelt flour and oats so I decided to try a version using those in place of the rye flour and seeds!

This is a dairy-free recipe so there’s no soured cream or anything like that in it – just apple juice, rapeseed oil and honey along with my spelt flour/oats and bicarbonate of soda and salt.

I mixed the honey and oil with the apple juice and some water and mixed them up before adding the liquid to the oats to soak for a bit. Then I put my spelt flour in a mixing bowl with the bicarbonate of soda and salt and mixed these together before tipping in the oaty mixture. I mixed everything together to form a soft sticky dough which I formed into a round and plonked it on a floured baking sheet. I topped it with a few oats that I’d held back and a sprinkling of spelt flour and cut a deep cross in the dough.

I popped the loaf into a preheated oven at 200C and baked it for 30 minutes and then placed it on a wire rack to cool.

It didn’t cool for long, though, as I couldn’t resist eating a bit while it was still warm! It’s easy to break the loaf up with your hands, then I just sliced away at one of the quarters. It’s lovely with some dairy-free spread and a bit more honey on top. And it’s super-quick to make!

If you’d like to try it yourself, here’s the recipe: