I’ve never made bread before and as a start to try and get into this World I decided to give soda bread a try. So this soda bread recipe is great because it’s quick and easy – only 5 ingredients, one of those being salt! It’s called soda bread because the bicarbonate of soda used reacting with the acid in the buttermilk replaces the work of the yeast in standard bread, you get a super crusty light loaf in no time and it’s a really fun thing to experiment with.
First up pre-heat your oven to gas mark 6 or equivalent (see temperature conversion chart). Also get a large baking tray and give it a light dust with flour.
Into a large mixing bowl combine the 4 dry ingredients together – so the two types of flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda. Mix this so that it is all merged together.
Pour in the buttermilk and work with a wooden spoon, it will go quite clumpy but will still be (although will not look it) surprisingly wet. Pour the mixed ingredients onto a work surface dusted with flour and knead until well combined, all you are looking to do is make the dough nice and smooth, also using some of the flour to take any of the wet out of it.
Shape into a ball and lift onto the floured baking tray. Press down slightly and slice a cross into the top of the dough. Bake for 30 mins, remove from the oven and give it a tap, just like other bread if it sounds hollow, it’s done and essentially cooked through, place on a wire rack to cool down, but best served still slightly warm with butter, or even better as part of a bacon sandwich! Enjoy 🙂