Irish Soda Bread

I like the idea of baking your own bread instead of buying it. Sometimes it is pretty hard to get a good loaf of bread suitable for soup or just tea.

Michael, my husband kept on bugging me of trying a few types of bread and he want firmed types of bread.

My first attempt in making this Irish Soda Bread. It is a pretty easy to make kind of bread and you don't need to wait for the yeast to work on the dough. Just make sure you don't over knead or mixed it.

Ingredient

• 170g Self-raising Wholemeal Flour
• 170g Plain Flour
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 1/2 table spoon of sugar (optional)
• 1/2 tsp Baking soda
• 1 1/2 cup buttermilk (if you do not have buttermilk, you can make a subtitute. See below)

Direction

Buttermilk 

If you cannot find Buttermilk from the supermarket,  you can make some on your own. Just use 1 1/2 cup of fresh milk and half a lemon juice.  Just let it wait for a few minutes.

Making the bread

Preheat oven at 200C

Add Flour, Baking Soda, Salt, Sugar in a Mixing Bowl. Stir it together so that everything is mixed.

Make a hole in the middle of the flour and pour 3/4 of the buttermilk into it. Slowly and gentle mixed it together. Mixed it quickly and do not take your time as the baking soda will work with the buttermilk once it is combined.

Your dough should be moist and not sticky. If it is too dry add additional buttermilk to it.

Add some flour on the solid counter and pour the dough onto it. Knead briefly.

Form into a round and flatten the dough slightly. Place it on a lightly floured baking sheet.

Cut a cross on top of the dough and bake it for about 30 minutes until the loaf sound hollow.

You can use a toothpick and stick into the loaf to make sure it is fully baked.

Cool it on a wire rack.

This bread will last for a few day.

Good luck baking!