Soda bread

Ingredients

• Plain flour350 g
• Wholemeal flour150 g
• Buttermilk400 ml
• Bicarbonate of soda1 tsp
• Salt1 tsp
• Rolled oats — for the top2 tbsp

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Heat the oven to 220 °C in advance. The bread has to go in immediately after mixing; it cannot wait.

   15 min

2. 2

   Mix both flours, the bicarbonate and the salt in a bowl and stir well so the soda spreads evenly.

   3 min

3. 3

   Pour in the buttermilk and mix with a knife or your hand only until it comes together. The dough is sticky and uneven, which is correct.

   2 min

4. 4

   Turn it onto a floured tray, shape it into a round loaf and cut a deep cross almost to the base.

   2 min

5. 5

   Scatter the oats over and bake fifteen minutes at 220 °C, then thirty at 190 °C.

   47 min

6. 6

   A finished loaf sounds hollow when its base is tapped. Cool it on a rack for at least an hour: hot soda bread will not slice.

   60 min

About the dish

Bicarbonate reacts with the acid in buttermilk instantly, and the gas starts escaping straight away. So the dough cannot be kneaded and cannot be left: three minutes of delay and the bread will not rise.

Mix only until it comes together; lumps are fine. Developed gluten is not wanted at all in soda bread — it makes it tough and rubbery.

The cross on top is not decoration. It opens the loaf into four sectors so the heat reaches the middle of a dense dough that would otherwise stay raw.

Worth knowing

• — Buttermilk can be replaced by milk with a spoon of lemon juice or vinegar left to stand ten minutes. It is the acid that matters — in plain milk the soda does nothing.
• — Soda bread lives one day. On the second it is toasted, which plenty of Irish people consider its best form.
• — Cut the cross deep, two thirds of the way down. A shallow slash will not open the loaf and the middle stays sticky.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

260 kcal

Protein

9 g

Fat

2 g

Carbs

52 g

Useful for this recipe

• Oven Temperature Converter

More from Ireland

• Irish stew — Lamb with potato and onion, stewed without browning. The meat is never seared, and that is the whole point.