So-da Easy

Have you ever made Irish soda bread? I think it may have been the easiest thing to make ever. You basically mix flour and buttermilk and that's it. And for something that is so simple, it makes for a tasty snack or a very patriotic breakfast. You can't help but think about fully loaded coffin ships heading off to America with hundreds of eager, fellow Irish or our pal Michael Collins eating a slice before heading off to a historical meeting with the British. Just me? Well that or you can just watch 'Storage Wars' while you eat it and it's just as good.

Recipe:

What you need:

• 450g/1lb of plain flour
• teaspoon of castor sugar
• teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• teaspoon of salt
• 350-425 ml buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk you can apparently mix lemon juice into normal milk and leave it for about 10 mins and ta-da...you have buttermilk.)

What you do:

Set your oven to 230 degrees celcius. 

So all I did was weighed out my dry ingredients into a bowl and poured in the milk. I used the dough hook on my kitchenaid because I had never used it so I was curious. This basically just meant I had something extra to wash up so I reckon just use your hands. You just have to combine them together and you can either put the dough into a loaf tin or shape it into a ball kind of shape and throw it on a tray. No rising or proofing. Just put it into your preheated oven and then after 15 mins turn it down to 200 degrees and bake for another 30 mins. You know it is done when it is golden brown and if you tap the bottom of the loaf, it will sound hollow. I rolled it into a ball shape and scored the top and was delighted with how it turned out when I took it out of the oven. It's basically a giant scone so you could add fruit or maybe some cheese and herbs. It was so so tasty. I recommend good old fashioned jam and butter. And a mug of 'tae.' And a few folk tales to round it off. 

Joey x