Simple Soda Bread Recipe Perfect For St. Patrick's Day

It is Saint Patrick's Day tomorrow! It is one of my favourite days of the year as I get to spend it celebrating my patron saint... Who am I kidding? It's a day where I get time and a half pay and I freeze my backside off sitting on a stone wall watching the parade with my Mum and I get to eat junk food. That's my favourite part of the day. I've never been one to get drunk like everyone believes March 17th is about. So with that, I've decided to share one of my favourite recipes for one of my favourite Irish foods, Soda Bread.

 

 

 

I've used this recipe for years when making soda bread and it has always turned out to be delicious. The recipe is from a very old Good Housekeeping cook book. It's a simple to follow recipe and you don't need a special tin or equipment to make this. Just mix everything together, pop it in the oven and let the heat do all the work for you. It's delicious and I recommend serving it hot with butter and jam and trust me, you won't regret it.

 

 

 

Preparation time - 10 minutes

Cooking time - 35-40 minutes

Freezing - Suitable

 

 

Ingredients

• 450g Plain Wholemeal Flour
• 125g Plain White Flour
• 50g Rolled Oats
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
• 450ml Buttermilk

 

Method

• Put the flours, oats, salt and bicarbonate of soda in a large bowl and mix together. Add enough buttermilk to the mix to make a soft dough.
• Turn out onto a lightly flour dusted counter and knead very lightly, then shape into a large round shape and place on a grease baking sheet. Cut a deep cross in the top.
• Bake at 230*C (450*F/Gas Mark 8) for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 200*C (400*F/Gas Mark 6) and bake for a further 20-25 minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.
• Cool on a wire rack and eat while still warm.  

When I've made this in the past, I hadn't used the rolled oats (as I didn't know that they were) so you can omit them if you want to. I hope you enjoy this and found this useless and easy to follow. If you celebrate St. Patrick's Day, I hope you have a good one and remember, it's 'Paddy' and not 'Patty'. It is never 'Patty'  as Patty is a girl's name. I'm born and raised in Northern Ireland so I know. Sláinte agus táinte.