Ode to St Patrick: Irish Soda Bread

Now this one is the bread you make if you've never made bread before.  It is dead easy.  You can make, your kids could make it, your dog could make it - ok, maybe not your dog.  But seriously it is super easy, cheap and quick to make.

No waiting for dough to prove as there is no yeast
No kneading
No fancy machinery required, in fact no machinery at all.

With St. Patricks' day tomorrow this is a great bread to dip into soup or maybe even tomorrow's recipe... *wink*  or just with some butter and a good ol' guinness.  It's crunchy on the outside, soft and a little (but not too) dense.  "Grand" as the irish say.

I have sourced this recipe from the Irish baking goddess Rachel Allen - who else could give us such a foolproof recipe!?

Ingredients:
450 grams plain flour
1 cup buttermilk*
1 tsp caster sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

*if no buttermilk on hand, 5ml of white vinegar in the bottom of a 1 cup measure, fill with regular milk and wait 5 minutes until it curdles

Method:
Preheat oven to 230 degrees c

Sift flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl.  Add caster sugar and stir to combine and make a well in the centre.

Add half the butter milk and with a clawing motion with your hands, combine buttermilk and dry ingredients until combined, gradually add milk as required until you come to a dough like consistency.  it should not be sticky - do not knead either - this will make the bread too dense.

Turn out onto floured surface and pat into a circle about an inch thick, transfer to a greased baking tray and cut a cross into the top about 3/4 to the bottom.

Place in oven for 15 minutes then turn the temperature down to 200 degrees for a futher 25 minutes, then turn the loaf over for a futher 5 minutes.  Leave to cool on a wire rack, cut and serve hot or cold.

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