Soda Bread (by hand) - no yeast required! #Isolationbaking

It's March 2020, and we are currently in isolation due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  Hopefully there'll be a time in the not too distant future that I can look back on this, and appreciate our new normal's, and new connections to the outside world (drama Queen...moi haha)!

Served with soup, yummy

In the meantime, I thought I'd try my hand at making soda bread.  Coming from Irish stock, I grew up with mum making this, so, whilst I have the ingredients to hand, why not.   Have to say I was very impressed with myself.   

Back in the day our family owned Morton Flour Mill, but that's for another day...

Ingredients
350g wholemeal flour (I had strong wholemeal flour in the pantry, aka baking cupboard)
1tsp salt
1tsp bircarbonate of soda
About 280ml buttermilk (if you haven't got buttermilk, you can use same amount and add a tbs of white wine vinegar, stir and rest for around 5 mins, creates the same effect).

Method
1.  Preheat the oven to 220 electric/200 fan
2.  Mix all the dry ingredients together thoroughly.
3.  Tip in enough of the buttermilk to combine, and stir until the ingredients came together as a dough.   (You may not need all of the buttermilk, mine was quite wet, but still baked well).
4.  Place the ball of dough on a floured baking tray, and make a big cross on the dough, almost through to the bottom, helps the centre of the bread cook properly.
5.  Bake for 30mins.

Best served warm, I served it with a lovely soup for lunch.

Enjoy!
Annie x