Irish Soda Bread
Ingredients
- 170g Wholemeal Flour
- 170g mix of Self-Raising Flour and Plain Flour
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ½ teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda
- 290ml / ½ pint buttermilk (if you can’t find buttermilk use full fat milk and 1 fresh Lemon)
- 100g grated strong Cheddar Cheese (optional)
- Extra Flour for dusting
Equipment
- Small metal Baking Sheet/Tray
- Small sharp knife
- Apron
- Clean Tea towel x 2
- Weighing scales
- Mixing bowls
- Measuring jugs
- Utensils
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/Gas 6. Lightly flour a baking sheet.
- Make Butter Milk – Curdle milk with lemon juice. 290mls Milk. Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice in a jug. Milk will curdle. NB: There is no yeast in this bread. The acid in the buttermilk reacts with the bicarbonate of soda to create the rise. Some recipes use yoghurt instead of buttermilk.
- Tip both flour, salt and bicarbonate soda into a large mixing bowl and mix well using your hand. Add the cheese at this point if you are using it.
- Make a hole or well in middle of mixture and pour the buttermilk in the centre of the mixture, a little bit at a time, mixing with a large fork, to form a large dough. Add the rest of the buttermilk if the dough seems dry. (NB: Depending upon the absorbency of the flour, you may need to add a little milk if the dough seems too stiff). The dough should be sticky but not too wet.
- Place dough on floured work surface and kneed dough briefly – no more than a minute. You need to work quickly as once the buttermilk is added it begins to react with the bicarbonate of soda and starts the rising process.
- Form into a round and flatten the the dough slightly before placing on the baking sheet.
- Cut a cross on the top with a sharp knife or the floured handle of a wooden spoon. Do not go right through to the base.
- Dust the top of dough with flour.
- Bake on a floured tray or bake on dusted semolina tray. Bake for about 30 minutes until golden brown.
- When cooked, tap on underside of bread. If hollow sound, bread is cooked. A thud sound indicates bread not cooked. Cool on a wire rack.
- The bread is best eaten on the day of baking, as it quickly becomes dry. Store in an airtight container or freeze, on the day of baking, and keep for up to 1 month.
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