Irish Soda Bread

Ingredients

• 250 g wholemeal flour
• 250 g plain flour
• 1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 400 ml buttermilk

Method

1. Mix the dry ingredients

   Heat the oven to 220°C and whisk the flours, bicarbonate of soda and salt together thoroughly. Any lump of bicarb left unmixed bakes into a bitter grey spot.

2. Add the buttermilk fast

   Pour in the buttermilk and bring it together with one hand, spread like a claw, in as few turns as possible. The acid and the bicarb start reacting the moment they meet, and you are on a clock from here.

3. Shape, do not knead

   Tip onto a floured tray and pat into a round about 5 cm high. Kneading develops gluten this bread does not want — soda bread should be short and crumbly, not chewy.

4. Cut a deep cross

   Slash a cross most of the way through, right to the edges. It is not decoration: it lets heat into the middle of a dense loaf that would otherwise stay raw at the centre.

5. Bake

   Bake until dark and hollow-sounding when tapped underneath, turning the tray halfway.

   40 min

6. Cool wrapped

   Cool on a rack under a clean tea towel. The trapped steam softens what would otherwise be a punishingly hard crust. Best eaten the day it is made.