I make this bread regularly, it is a great accompaniment to a creamy vegetable soup and I highly recommend this soup recipe from Nessa’s Family Kitchen. I also love to toast it and top it with melted cheddar cheese.
Funny Story:
Whilst making this bread one day, Zoe was helping me pour the dry ingredients into the bowl (she was 2 at the time) and as I turned to get the buttermilk an irresistible urge seemed to come over her and she blew into the bowl!! Well needless to say a little flour bomb exploded in her face, she looked up at me in shock and I howled laughing, the poor girl was covered in flour!
Irish Brown Soda Bread
Ingredients:
- 250g extra coarse wholemeal flour
- 250g plain white flour plus a little extra for sprinkling
- 1 teaspoon bread soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 400ml buttermilk
To Bake:
Preheat the oven to 200°
Add the wholemeal flour, plain flour, salt and bread soda into a large mixing bowl, give it a little stir with a spoon, then make a well in the centre of the ingredients and pour the buttermilk into it.
Now that all the ingredients are in the bowl, it’s time to mix, I use a an electric kitchen machine with a dough hook for this but you can also hand knead it, just use a lot of flour on your hands and the surface as it’s a very wet sticky mixture.
Get a baking tray, cover it with a baking sheet and sprinkle some plain white flour on top.
Place kneaded mixture onto the middle of the tray, sprinkle with flour and shape to a round. Last thing you need to do before putting in the oven is engrave a cross on the top of the bread with a knife.
Place in the preheated oven for approx 35 minutes, you will know it is finished by tapping the bottom of the loaf, if you hear a hollow sound it’s done.
Bakermam 