Traditional and easy Irish soda bread recipe

Have a go at making your own Irish soda bread. Try it for breakfast, lunch or tea, slap on some butter, use it to mop up your stew, this bread goes with everything. You could even cook this recipe over a fire, but we'll stick to a typical home oven to keep things simple.

🚨 Ask a grown-up to help with this recipe, as you will using hot objects! 🚨

STEP 1

Grab a grown-up to preheat the oven to 200C.

Prepare a baking sheet, dust it with flour to make sure your dough doesn't stick.

STEP 2

Mix the flour, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour the buttermilk into the dry mix and quickly combine with a wooden spoon. As the dough begins to form, use your fingers to knead it all together on a lightly floured surface.

STEP 3

Knead gently, but not too much (if the dough seems stiff, you can add a little milk. Don't add too much, as you can't take it away again!). Shape the dough into a round loaf, flatten it slightly and place it on your floured baking sheet.

Score a deep cross on the top, this will help the bread cook all the way through. Ask an adult to help put it in the oven to bake for 30-35 minutes. 

STEP 4

After the baking time, keep your grown-up working and ask them to test if the bread is ready by taping the bottom of the loaf. When it sounds hollow, it is ready. If it doesn't sound hollow, turn the bread upside down and bake for a few more minutes.

Once the loaf sounds ready and has cooled slightly, transfer the bread to a wire rack. Cover it with a clean tea towel and leave it to cool further.

The tea towel will help to produce a good crust, delicious!

STEP 5

Eat the bread once it's cooled. It's at its best nice and fresh. 😋

Plain flour, baking soda and salt are all common ingredients that you probably already have at home, or could find easily in almost any grocery shop.

Buttermilk can be found in supermarkets with the cream and dairy items. Did you know that it is traditionally a by-product of butter-making? It's simply the liquid that is left over after butter is churned from cream. Amazing!

If you don't have or can't find buttermilk for the soda bread recipe, you can use half-and-half plain yoghurt mixed with milk. You can also use milk that has been soured by stirring in a tablespoon of lemon juice and allowing it to stand for 10 minutes. 

If you'd like to make this recipe vegan, you can subtitute dairy buttermilk for your favourite dairy-free milk such as oat milk. Follow the recipe as above, just add a tablespoon of lemon juice to your dairy-free milk to give it that slightly sour kick.

Are you a foodie? Well be sure to check out The Blue Peter Recipe Book! From sublime savoury snacks and suppers to sweet treats to tickle your taste buds, whatever you fancy cooking - we've got you covered!

Hungry for even more, or want to see what else there is on Blue Peter? Head over to the Blue Peter to page to find makes, bakes, quizzes and games!

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