Beautiful bread

In an ideal world where I had nothing else to do I'd make bread every day, except that if I did make bread every day I'd eat it!

I've never been able to walk past a bakery without this magical force dragging me in so I can (as my friend once put it) rescue a roll.

Hey, I can think of worse things.

Here's a question – how many of you out there possess a bread maker – how many of you use it – how many of you have used it once and then committed it to the darkest depths of the garage or shed where it will gather dust, never to see the light of day again.

I did have one years ago that was a gift. I did use it from time to time but, as with most gadgets and gizmos its not the end product that's the problem it's all the faffing and messing around with humungous pieces of kit. I liken it to ironing – it's not the ironing I hate it's getting out the board and assembling all the kit to do the job and then to add insult to injury you have to clear up afterwards!

Anyway, bread making generally speaking is time consuming too so, here's my antidote – make soda bread – in 30 minutes.

Soda bread – rapido

170g self raising wholemeal flour

170g plain flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

290ml buttermilk – you may need

an extra drop and so purchase in a 300ml pot

is convenient.

Pre heat your oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6.

Tip the flours, salt and bicarb into a large bowl and mix.

Make a well in the centre, pour in 290ml of buttermilk and mix quickly with a large fork until you have a soft dough formed. You may need an extra drop if your dough is too stiff but take care it should not be too wet or sticky.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly.

Form the dough into a round a flatten slightly. Place on a lightly floured baking sheet.

Slice an “x” on the top of the loaf and bake for 30 minutes – the base should sound hollow when tapped.

Just to confuse the issue I've found buttermilk in different weights. A low fat version weighing 284ml and a full fat version weighing 300ml.

Stress ye not – either weight will do the job but if pushed I think I'd prefer the full fat version.

Here's the result :

Happy baking.