This recipe for soda bread is quick and easy to make. No need to wait for dough to prove and it uses simple ingredients too.
It’s fair to say that most of us like fresh bread. There’s nothing like the smell of it, wafting through the house. Or the taste of fresh, springy slice of bread, spread thickly with butter.
The trouble is that what they call ‘artisan’ bread is expensive. In other words the stuff that folk used to make in the olden days before factories were invented! If you make your own you have to faff about rising and proofing and knocking back and all the rest. And after all of that effort if you don’t quite get it right it doesn’t taste all that nice anyway!
Soda Bread Recipe
Makes one reasonably large loaf to easily feed four people. Or you can make bread buns if you like crusty bread.
The raising agent in Soda Bread is bicarbonate of soda, not yeast.
Feel inspired? Watch this short video blog and see how easy it is to make (even if you get the recipe wrong!) –
Tips: Halve the quantities and make four smaller bread rolls. What about adding dried fruit? Or cheese?
Not got any yoghurt? You can use 400ml of milk instead and mix it with 2tsp of lemon juice or wine vinegar instead.
How do you like your crust? For a crusty loaf – cool it on a wire rack. Prefer a soft crust? Wrap it in a clean tea towel to cool.
Like the crusty bits? Instead of making one loaf make smaller bread buns. The smaller the buns, the more crusty they will be.
Cutting a cross in the top helps the bread to cook more evenly, but Irish legend says it also protects the bread from fairies!
Ingredients for Soda Bread
- 450g of ordinary flour (not bread flour)
- 1 level teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
- 1 level teaspoon of salt
- and 1 level teaspoon of sugar
- 300ml of plain yogurt (2/3 of one of the big cartons)
- Make the yogurt up to 400ml with milk
Method
If you’ve looked at any of our other recipes you’ll know that we belong to the ‘looks about right’ school of cookery!
So you won’t be surprised to know that the recipe said plain flour, but we didn’t have any so I used self raising.
Put the flour, bicarb, salt and sugar in a sieve over a large bowl. Sift it together to distribute the bicarb into the flour so that the bread rises evenly.
Put the yogurt into a jug and make it up to 400ml with milk.
Mix the dough
Mix the fluid into the flour with a spoon. You’re aiming for a soft but not too wet doughy consistency, like a softer pastry mix. If you need more fluid add more milk.
Pull the dough together with floured fingers, turn onto a worksurface and shape into a ball. Cut a cross in the top.
You need to work quite quickly. As soon as the moisture hits the bicarb it will start to give off bubbles of gas. You need to trap them in the dough as it cooks to make a fluffy, light bread.
Put the dough onto a floured baking tray and straight into a pre-heated oven at 220C for about half an hour.
When it looks cooked, take it out of the oven and carefully lift it up (take care it will be hot) and tap it underneath. If it sounds hollow it’s cooked. You can also stab it with something sharp (like a skewer or knife). If the blade comes out dry, the dough is cooked right through.
Fresh Bread in an Instant
This Soda Bread really couldn’t be easier to make. It also means you can have fresh bread really quickly. For just a few simple ingredients it’s actually very tasty. It looks almost like a brown bread, but with a bit of a denser texture than a regular loaf.
We eat almost all of ours in one sitting. Any leftover bits are delicious toasted. I would imagine that it very quickly goes like rock if you don’t eat it on the day that you make it.
Programmes like The Great British Bake Off have had the country in the kitchen, whipping up cupcakes and bread. Some of us like the idea but lack the skills and/or time! If you fancy yourself as the next Mary Berry or Paul Hollywood this is one recipe that’s so easy, anyone with basic skills should be able to manage it. Why don’t you have a go!
You might also like:
- Meat and potato pie
- Corned beef hash
- Homemade soup
- Shepherd’s pie
- Soda bread
- Bacon sandwich
- Yorkshire fish cake
- Ways with Salad
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