CRUSTY Irish soda bread is a fine thing to bake at the weekend, because there is no proving, no rising and no waiting. It’s just bake-and-scoff.

The beauty of this bread is that it uses bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar as rising agents instead of yeast, which, like most brilliantly simple ideas, was born of necessity. For yeast to do its work, strong bread flour is required. In rural Ireland in the late 19th century, this sort of flour was hard to come by, so someone had the bright idea of combining convenient, easily stored bicarbonate of soda with soured milk, which generated enough carbon dioxide to help the dough to rise.

These days buttermilk (from health food shops and some supermarkets) is generally used, although a natural “live” yoghurt will also do the trick. Traditionally, a cross is cut in the uncooked loaf to “let out the Devil”, which coincidentally helps the bread to cook more evenly.

Once your soda bread emerges from the oven like a crusty, giant scone, the weekend is sorted. Serve it with cheese and pickled onions for an easy Saturday lunch, or with smoked salmon and horseradish sauce if you’re entertaining on Saturday night. Eat it still warm with butter and honey for Sunday’s late breakfast — late because you decided to bake soda bread when you got out of bed. Team it with a thick vegetable and bean soup for Sunday’s supper, or slice it and top it with left-over Sunday roast.

Perhaps you should think about baking two loaves.






Prep: 15 min
Cook: 45 min
Serves 4 (makes one loaf)



450g plain white flour
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1tsp cream of tartar
1tsp sea salt, ground to a powder
1tsp sugar
400g skim milk
acidophilus yoghurt or approx 300ml buttermilk

METHOD

Heat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar and salt together into a bowl. Stir in the sugar. Add the yoghurt or buttermilk, mixing it in with a broad-bladed knife or with your fingers, until it gathers into a soft, wet dough.

If the dough is too dry to come together, add a little more yoghurt or a tablespoonful or two of warm water, but don’t overmix.

Flour your hands and knead very briefly, then pat the dough into a mounded round and place on a floured baking tray. Cut a deep cross into the top of the loaf.

Bake in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes. Cover the top loosely with greaseproof paper and bake for another 15 minutes, or until the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Eat it still warm from the oven, or wrap in a cloth and eat the same day.

jill.dupleix@thetimes.co.uk

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