Irish Soda Bread

Ingredients

• 350g plain flour
• 150g wholemeal flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 400ml buttermilk
• 1 tbsp porridge oats for the top, optional
• Extra flour for dusting

Before you cook

• Heat the oven to 200C fan and dust a baking sheet with flour.
• Sift the plain flour, wholemeal flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a large bowl.
• Measure out the buttermilk so it is ready to go in all at once.

Steps

1. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients with your hand.
2. Pour in almost all the buttermilk at once.
3. Stir with your fingers held stiff like a claw, moving in widening circles, until the flour is just taken up.
4. Add the remaining buttermilk only if there is dry flour left in the bowl; the dough should be soft and slightly sticky.
5. Tip the dough onto a floured surface and turn it over on itself three or four times, no more, to bring it into a round.
6. Pat the dough into a flat disc about 5cm deep and lift it onto the floured baking sheet.
7. Cut a deep cross into the top with a sharp knife, going about two-thirds of the way down.
8. Scatter over the oats if you are using them.
9. Bake for fifteen minutes at 200C fan.
10. Lower the oven to 180C fan and bake for a further twenty-five to thirty minutes.
11. Tap the underside of the loaf; it should sound hollow, and if it thuds return it to the oven for five minutes.
12. Cool the bread on a wire rack for at least twenty minutes before cutting, or wrap it in a clean tea towel for a softer crust.