Buttermilk soda bread: no yeast, no kneading, an hour from idea to loaf
The Irish loaf that rescues any day without bread: flour, buttermilk, bicarbonate of soda and salt, stirred with a spoon in two minutes and straight into the oven. Instead of yeast it rises on the reaction of soda with the acid in the buttermilk, which is why it doesn't rest for a moment. A dense, moist crumb, a crackling crust, a slightly nutty taste from the wholemeal. Best warm, with butter.
Your own work in that: 10 min.
- Mixing 10 min
- Baking 40 min
- Cooling 30 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneHeat the oven and mix the dry ingredients
Heat the oven to 200 °C with a baking tray inside: the dough should land on a hot tray. In a large bowl whisk both flours, the soda and the salt so the soda is evenly distributed; a lump of soda in the dough makes a bitter brown spot.
Ingredients: 250 g plain flour · 250 g wholemeal (graham) flour · 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda · 1 tsp salt · 450 ml buttermilk · 1 tbsp rolled oats
TipBicarbonate of soda, not baking powder. Baking powder carries its own acid and doesn't need buttermilk; soda needs the acid from the buttermilk to make gas. That reaction is what turns a flat disc into bread.
Flours, soda, salt: whisked evenlyPour in the buttermilk
Make a well in the flour and pour in all the buttermilk at once. From this moment the clock is running: soda reacts with acid from the first second, and gas that escapes in the bowl is lost to the oven.
All at once; from now on, quicklyCombine with a spoon, don't knead
Stir with a spoon from the centre outwards for 30–40 seconds, only until no dry flour shows. The dough is loose, shaggy and sticky; that is right. Don't knead: gluten developed by kneading turns soda bread rubbery, and kneading knocks out the gas.
TipToo dry (buttermilks vary)? Add a spoon of buttermilk. Too wet to shape? A spoon of flour. It should gather into a loose ball with floured hands.
Shaggy, sticky, no kneadingShape and cut the cross
Turn the dough onto a floured counter, gather it briefly into a ball with floured hands and flatten into a round 18 cm across and 4 cm high. Move it onto baking paper. With a large knife cut a cross deep, two-thirds of the way down: without it the thick centre struggles to bake through and the crust splits wherever it likes. Sprinkle with oats.
An 18 cm round, a cross two-thirds deepBake on the hot tray
Slide the paper with the loaf onto the hot tray and bake 35–40 minutes at 200 °C, until the crust is deep brown and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped underneath. If the top is already very dark after 25 minutes, cover with foil. No more than 5 minutes should pass between adding the buttermilk and closing the oven door.
Forty minutes, a hollow sound underneathCool in a cloth
Wrap the loaf in a linen cloth and leave on a rack for 30 minutes: the cloth softens the very hard crust while the crumb sets. Slice only when lukewarm. Soda bread is best on the day; tomorrow it is denser, so toast it or warm it 5 minutes in the oven.
Half an hour in a cloth, then the knife
Before you start
No buttermilk
450 ml milk with 2 spoons of lemon juice or vinegar, left 10 minutes until it curdles and thickens. The acidity is similar, so the loaf comes out very much the same. Kefir and thin yogurt work too.
With additions
A handful of raisins and a spoon of sugar for a sweet version with butter and jam; or a spoon of caraway and a handful of dried onion for soups and pâté. Mix into the dry ingredients.
The loaf came out dense and flat
Three causes: old soda (test: a teaspoon in vinegar should fizz hard), mixing too long, or too long a gap between buttermilk and oven. The dough should go in sticky and immediately.
