The perfect soda bread recipe – Maggie Finn

The perfect soda bread recipe

Soda bread is supremely straightforward to make, but like any bread recipe, it’s deceptive. Just flour, water and yeast? That’s it? Well most bread has a hidden ingredient that’s never listed: time. Measuring and mixing, kneading (‘elbow grease’ is rarely listed either), then proving, then proving again, not to mention the all important bake-time. Start at dawn, you might have something for lunch! Sodabread has the huge advantage that you can pretty much skip the kneading and proving stages and get it straight into the oven…mmm!

Ingredients

How to

  1. Preheat the oven to 400F/200C/Gas mark 6.
  2. Mix both of the flours, salt and bicarb.
  3. Make a well in the centre of the mixture and pour in the buttermilk, using a fork to make into a soft (but not sticky) dough.
  4. Knead it (briefly) into a round shape on a floured surface.
  5. Flatten it out on a floured baking sheet.
  6. Cut a cross on the top (important: use a very sharp knife for this) and bake for about 30 minutes. Turn it upside down and tap on the bottom: if it sounds hollow it’s probably ready.
  7. Try to resist eating before you’ve cooled it on a wire rack!

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