Irish Soda Bread
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Delicious, easy wholemeal bread recipe ready in 40 minutes.
Serves:2 small loaves
Ingredients
- 350 g coarse stoneground wholewheat flour
- 200 g wholewheat flour swap with plain white flour for a lighter loaf
- 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp molasses or molasses sugar optional
- 25 g butter or 1 tbsp olive oil
- 500 ml buttermilk or kefir
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 230 °C and lightly dust a baking tray with flour.
- Sieve together the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda. This is an important step, or you tend to get clumps of soda in the bread.
- If you are using sugar, mix in sugar and then rub in the butter (or mix in the oil).
- If you are using molasses, mix it well with a little of the buttermilk/kefir and then incorporate it into the flour until you have a loose dough which holds together. Depending on the flour you use, you may not need all the liquid.
- The trick is to work quickly, not overworking the dough. Form two round loaves and cut a deep cross across each loaf. Cover the griddle or baking tray with grease-proof paper and dust with flour.
- Bake on the middle shelf for 10 minutes, turn the oven down to 200 °C and bake for another 20 - 25 minutes. The loaves should sound hollow when tapped underneath. Keep an eye on it, and if it starts to brown too much, turn the oven down again.
- Ideally, leave to cool before cutting.
Notes
Soda bread does not keep for more than a couple of days but freezes really well. Once you have made a couple of successful loaves, experiment with the flour; for example, rye flour instead of the wholewheat works really well. You can replace some of the wholemeal flour with oats or pinmeal. Raisins, walnuts or rosemary are also a great addition.
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