Nasturtium soda bread swirls
The flavour of nasturtium comes though with a pleasing aromatic, peppery punch in these swirls, which include both the leaves and the flowers. The leaves do the heavy lifting of providing that distinctive nasturtium flavour and the petals add pops of orange when you bite into the rolls. These are a great alternative to savoury scones or muffins for a picnic or a lunch box and have the added bonus of needing no accompaniment as they are already filled with butter and cheese.
In spring, I make a delicious version of these with wild garlic. Replace the nasturtium leaves with wild garlic leaves in the flavoured butter and, if you want, add in 75g chopped sun-dried tomatoes along with the cheese for some colour and extra flavour.
Photograph by Sharon Cosgrove
Makes 12 swirls
For the dough:
500g self-raising flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
130g cold butter, cubed
300-330ml buttermilk
For the filling:
100g butter, really softened (I put mine in the microwave for 15 second)
75g nasturtium leaves, chopped
30-40 nasturtium flowers
115g firm swiss-style cheese, such a gruyere, grated
Pinch of smoked paprika
Begin by pre-heating the oven to 180 Celsius (fan)
Grease a 12 hole muffin tin.
Put the flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Give it a quick mix with a whisk to combine all the dry ingredients and break up any lumps. Then rub in the cubes of cold butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Make the nasturtium butter by combining the chopped nasturtium leaves and the softened butter. Mix well with a spatula until completely combined. Set aside.
Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour in most of the buttermilk. Using your hand in an open ‘claw’ shape mix the flour into the buttermilk until you have a soft but not sticky dough. Add the rest of the buttermilk if it is too dry. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Wash and dry your hands to remove any stickiness.
Roll out the dough into a rectangle until it is about 40cm x 25cm with the long side facing you. Spread the nasturtium butter over the dough, almost to the edges. Then add nasturtium petals all over the nasturtium butter, so the orange and yellow flowers almost completely cover the nasturtium butter layer. Finally sprinkle over 100g of the grated cheese. Roll up, quite tightly, into a long spiral like a Swiss roll, rolling from the long side.
Trim a centimetre or so off each end, so you can get nice clean slices. I just put these trimmings on another baking tray and bake them at the same time as a cook’s treat.
Cut the rest of the roll into 2.5-3cm pieces and put each piece into the muffin tin, with the cut side facing up. Put into the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Mix the remaining grated cheese and the paprika together. Take the swirls out of the oven, sprinkle a little of the cheese mix over each bun. Put them back in the oven for another 5-10 minutes until they are golden brown. Turn onto a cooling rack, I like to put the bottoms facing up to allow them to crisp up a bit. Eat as soon as they are cool enough to handle. These are best on the day they are made but can be rejuvenated on subsequent days by putting them in the oven for a couple of minutes.
