I was planning on baking lots of stuff for St. Patrick’s Day but life got in the way and all I managed to make was a Soda Bread – but at least it was a really good one! 🙂

This is a Lorraine Pascale’s recipe, from Baking Made Easy and it is so simple! No kneading, no proving, but so flavourful! From start to finish, it takes only one hour 🙂

IRISH SODA BREAD

INGREDIENTS
370g plain flour
130g wholemeal flour
1 tsp bicarb
1 tsp salt
40g melted butter
340g buttermilk
1 tbsp treacle

METHOD
Preheat oven to 200°C.
Place all dry ingredients in a bowl, make a well in the centre and add the other ingredients. Bring it together with a wooden spoon at first, and then with floured hands – no kneading, just until it comes together into a ball. Place it on a floured tray. Flour the end of a wooden spoon and mark a cross on top of the dough. Sprinkle a little flour and bake for 30-40 minutes.

Wikipedia > Soda Bread: “In Ireland, the flour is typically made from soft wheat; so soda bread is best made with a cake or pastry flour (made from soft wheat), which has lower levels of gluten than a bread flour. In some recipes, the buttermilk is replaced by live yoghurt or even stout. Bakers recommend the minimum amount of mixing of the ingredients before baking; the dough should not be kneaded.”