Ingredients
- 200 grams of white flour (can use plain or self-raising as you are adding baking soda, and self-raising flour can quickly lose its raising power)
- 50 grams whole meal flour
- 1 tsp baking soda/bicarbonate of soda (you cannot substitute baking powder)
- 1tsp of salt
- 255 ml Buttermilk (if you don’t have buttermilk you can add 1 tbs of lemon juice to 250 ml of milk, stir and leave to stand for 5 minutes before using)
Method
- Preheat the oven to 225c /Fan 200/Gas 7
- Put all the dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix together with a fork or clean hands.
- Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the buttermilk, and mix with a fork to form a soft dough with all the dry ingredients incorporated. You can use your hands or a dough scraper if you have one. (You may need to add a little more buttermilk if the dough seems too stiff but it shouldn’t be too sticky.)
- When everything is mixed together, turn the dough out onto a floured surface and roll it in the flour. One of the lovely things about this bread is that you do not have to knead it.
- Form into a ball and flatten the dough slightly with a clean hand, before placing on a lightly floured baking sheet. Sprinkle with a little flour or seeds.
- Cut a cross on the top – to let the fairies out – and bake for about 20 – 25 minutes or until the loaf is browned on top and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Cool on a wire rack or on its side.
- You can eat the soda bread with butter and/ or jam, with a savoury topping or just by itself. You can also experiment by adding seeds, sundried
tomatoes, parmesan or sultanas or anything else that takes your fancy into the mix.
The soda bread is great eaten on the day you make it but is still fine for a few days, just a little chewier and is also great toasted.
Enjoy. Let us know how you get on with this.
