Make your own soda bread instead of buying a fresh loaf

There’s nothing quite like the taste or smell of a fresh loaf of bread, but if you’re not a confident baker, making your own might seem a bit daunting.

So we wanted to recommend a great option - soda bread.

It doesn’t need yeast, you don’t have to knead it, and you don’t have to wait hours for it to prove.

And it’s delicious.

What you'll need

• 500g of plain flour
• 400ml of milk
• one tablespoon of lemon juice
• one teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• one teaspoon of salt

How to make it

1. Heat your oven to 200°C (180°C fan).
2. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a large bowl.
3. Pour the milk into a jug, add the lemon juice and stir.
4. Make a well in the middle and pour in the milk and lemon juice mixture.
5. Stir until it comes together into a dough.
6. Tip onto a floured surface and shape into a round loaf.
7. Place on a baking tray and cut a deep cross across the top.
8. Bake for around 30 to 40 minutes until golden and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped underneath.

Leave it to cool slightly before slicing.

Isn’t soda bread usually made with buttermilk?

If you know a little about baking, you might have spotted that our recipe doesn’t include one common ingredient.

Soda bread is traditionally made with buttermilk because it’s slightly acidic, so it reacts with the bicarbonate of soda and helps the bread rise.

But it’s not something that most people have in their fridge and we’re all about helping you keep costs down.

So instead, we recommend adding a tablespoon of lemon juice to milk, as it does the same job without you having to buy an extra ingredient.

Don’t worry if the milk starts to look a bit curdled once you’ve added the lemon juice.

That’s exactly how it should be.

What to serve with soda bread

Fresh soda bread is delicious while it’s still slightly warm. 

So use it instead of toast with things like cheese, beans or eggs.

Soda bread also goes great with nice warm soup, especially if that’s homemade too.

Make your loaf last

While freshly made soda bread has a certain magic about it, you don’t have to eat it all in one go.

If you don’t use the whole loaf, then slice it up and put the slices in the freezer, so they can be toasted later on.

And if it’s starting to go stale before you’ve had a chance to freeze it, it will still toast really well and taste delicious.