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Irish white soda bread

Name: Irish white soda bread
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 8
Ingredients: 450 g white flour, preferably unbleached; 1 tsp salt (level); 1 tsp bread soda (bicarbonate of soda), level; 375 ml sour milk or buttermilk

Ireland's everyday loaf, raised in the oven by bread soda reacting with buttermilk rather than by yeast: mixed in two minutes, cut with a deep cross and baked at once. The recipe is Darina Allen's, of Ballymaloe Cookery School.

Editorial illustration of the documented recipe; not a photograph of a kitchen-tested result.

Servings: 8
Preparation: 5 min
Cooking: 45 min
Total: 50 min
Difficulty: Easy

Equipment

Large bowl and a sieve
Baking tray, floured
Sharp knife

Servings8

Ingredients

450 gwhite flour, preferably unbleached
1 tspsalt (level)
1 tspbread soda (bicarbonate of soda), level
375 mlsour milk or buttermilkAllen gives 350–400 ml; add it gradually.

Shopping list

Method

Fully preheat the oven to 230 °C.
Why The soda starts reacting as soon as it is wet; the oven must be ready before you mix.
Sieve the flour, salt and bread soda into a large bowl and mix well to distribute the salt and soda. Make a well in the centre.
Pour in most of the milk at once. With one hand, draw in the flour from the sides, adding more milk if needed. The dough should be soft but not too wet and sticky.
When it comes together, turn onto a well-floured surface. Tidy it up and flip it over gently; do not knead. Pat into a round about 4 cm deep.
Cut a deep cross in the top, letting the cuts run over the sides.
Why Allen says it is 'to let the fairies out'; it also lets the heat reach the centre of a thick loaf.
Bake 15 minutes at 230 °C, then turn the oven down to 200 °C and bake 30 minutes more, until the base sounds hollow when tapped.
Timer · 45 min45:00

Substitutions

Loaf tin → Allen's tin version uses 425 ml buttermilk in a 450 g (13 × 20 cm) oiled tin.
Oven → Allen bakes the same dough in a bastible (a covered pot, preheated and lined) for 30–35 minutes.
Scones → Pat 2.5 cm deep, cut into scones and bake about 20 minutes in the hot oven.

Common mistakes

Kneading: it toughens the crumb. Mix quickly and handle as little as possible.
Too wet a dough: it spreads into a flat disc.

Storage & reheating

Best the day it is made, warm or cool. Next day it makes good toast.

Allergens

Gluten · Milk

Check labels: stock, bacon and sauces can contain further allergens.

Dietary

vegetarian

A loaf without yeast

Soda bread is risen by the reaction of bread soda (bicarbonate) with the acid in sour milk or buttermilk, so it needs no yeast, no rising time and only a few ingredients. Darina Allen calls it one of her 'great convertibles': the same dough makes a loaf, scones or a pot-baked bastible bread, and takes herbs, cheese or olives.

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Fast hands, hot oven

Allen tells cooks to measure meticulously and to have the oven fully hot before mixing. The dough is brought together with one hand, patted into a round 4 cm deep, cut with a cross and baked at once, 15 minutes at 230 °C and then 30 at 200 °C. A hollow sound when the base is tapped shows it is done.

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How it connects

Region

origin Ireland