Soda Bread, leavened with bicarbonate of soda rather than yeast, which makes it perfect for me as I am supposed to be avoiding yeast, it’s not easy as I love breads of every kind! I made a plain version to start with and really enjoyed it. Soda bread does not keep well and is best eaten within a day or so, no problem there then! Apparently it freezes well, mine didn’t last long enough to freeze.
I expect all Soda Bread recipes are mostly alike but I’m using Paul Hollywood’s version from his How to Bake book but I did halve the recipe, I always like to do a test bake first!
Prep: 15-20 mins
Makes: 1 small loaf
Pre-heat your oven to 200°C/180°C fan/Gas 6
Line a baking tray with parchment/baking paper
Ingredients
250g plain white flour plus a little extra for dusting your board and dough before baking
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
200ml buttermilk
Method
Combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a bowl, then add in the buttermilk and stir until a sticky dough is formed.
Put the dough onto a lightly floured surface and shape into a ball, flatten slightly.
Then put the dough onto your prepared baking try, cut into quarters making sure you don’t cut all the way through and give a light dusting with flour.
Bake for 30 minutes or until cooked through.
Leave to cool on a wire rack.
The great thing about some breads are the alternatives you can make. Combining wholemeal and white flour and by adding grated cheese and onion or sun-dried tomatoes, olives, etc to the dough mixture for an even more delicious Soda Bread.
For the Sundried Tomato and Cheese Soda bread I used 180g white plain flour (all I had left after baking 2 other Soda Breads!) and 70g wholemeal flour, as you can see even so little wholemeal flour has given it a lovely colour and texture. I used 40g extra strong Cheddar cheese, will use more next time, love cheesy bread and a few sun-dried Tomatoes, again could have used more. Can’t wait to try out more combinations!
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