This week all my warm thoughts and memories reach out to Ireland about to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on Saturday.

W tym tygodniu wysyłam ciepłe życzenia i sięgam do wspomnień o Irlandii, która w sobotę będzie wspominać dzień Św. Patryka.

It doesn’t really matter to me whether St. Patrick’s Day is to you a spiritual experience, a political one or just a chance to have a pint or twenty. Or neither. When I think of Ireland, one of my first thoughts is soda bread.

It’s strange that I haven’t done it before, it’s so easy. I’ve done a yeasted bread with Guinness, but this one is completely different and way easier. I took the recipe from Paul Hollywood’s website (sources).

Soda bread

Planning

You need about 10-15 minutes to heat up the oven and prepare the dough while this is happening, then 30 minutes for baking. Seriously, it’s so simple.

You’ll need some baking tray and a baking parchment.

Ingredients

• 250 g strong white wheat flour
• 250 g strong wholemeal wheat flour
• 10 g bicarbonate of soda
• 10 g salt
• 400 g buttermilk

Preparation

1. Set your oven to 180-200 C degrees. Know your oven

2. While it’s warming up, mix all dry ingredients of the dough in a bowl

3. Next start adding the buttermilk and mix it in till the whole flour becomes incorporated. I started with 200 g and gradually added the rest. 400 g was enough for me, but you might need a bit more. Remember to act quick as the reaction between the soda and buttermilk has already started

4. Shape  a ball of dough, place on the baking parchment, flatten a bit, make a deep cross score on top and put in the oven. I added a bit of steam

5. Bake for about 30 minutes

6. Let it cool down a bit before eating

   

   Soda bread

It’s so ridiculously simple to make. It smells like a scone without sugar, the crumb is not very developed, the holes are very small. We ate half of it in 30 minutes from baking. Goes well with jam, ham or spam. We weren’t expecting that, but at the same time we know we wouldn’t be able to have it more than once in a row, although it is perfect for last minute baking needs.

Enjoy your St. Patrick’s Day!