Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Buttermilk Soda Bread

Making your own bread may seem very scary but this is the easiest and most rewarding bread you'll ever make.  You don't need yeast, a breadmaker or even a food mixer - just a big bowl and your own hands.  The buttermilk gives the bread a beautiful yellow colour and it rises beautifully thanks to the bicarbonate of soda. You'll never buy shop-bought soda bread again...

You can add extra ingredients to the bread to customise it : currants, chocolate chips, cheese, herbs from your garden - whatever takes your fancy.




Buttermilk Soda Bread

450g Plain Flour
1 tsp Caster Sugar
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
1 tsp Salt
350ml Buttermilk

Preheat your oven to 230c/Gas Mark 8


Sift all of the dry ingredients into a large bowl, make a well and add the buttermilk.


Using your hand like a claw, mix the flour and buttermilk together, adding a drop more buttermilk if the mixture is too dry.  The dough should be soft, but not wet and sticky.


Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and form into a round about 3.5cm thick.  Put the dough onto a baking sheet and cut a deep cross into it using a very sharp knife (this lets the fairies out!)




Bake for 15 minutes at 230c/Gas Mark 8, then reduce the temperature to 200c/Gas Mark 6 and bake for another 30 minutes.  The bread should be golden and sound hollow when you tap the base.  If you don't hear this sound, give it another 5 minutes.



Cool on a wire rack before covering in butter and devouring.  If any of the bread survives the night, it makes excellent toast too.


5 comments:

  1. Just the way we always made it at home but really struggle to buy buttermilk here. Have you ever tried putting lemon juice through natural yoghurt as an alternative/subsitute? Have seen Nigel Slater mention it a couple of times

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  2. We've no problem buying buttermilk in Ireland - every supermarket has it so I don't have to make it myself (thank goodness as I'm rather lazy...)

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  3. This is one of the firts irish recipe I learned when I arrived here but I have to admit the flavour is never never never the same of the one made by real irish people! :)

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  4. how do i make irish brown soda bread?

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  5. No, no, no! The cross is to bless the bread. If you want to let the fairies out, you stick a sharp knife into each quarter. I always keep the fairies in!
    Making soda bread seems a bit of a palaver if you only do it now and again, but if you do it every few days, it just becomes a pleasant habit, no bother!
    The simplest brown recipe is the same, just use half coarse brown and half white flour. For added interest, I put in an ounce of Macroom Oatmeal and a couple of teaspoons of milled linseed.
    I must visit your blog more often, it's good!

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