Irish soda bread

  • 4 dl darker wheat flour or bread flour
  • 2 dl wholemeal wheat flour (or oat/rye flour)
  • 50 g cold butter
  • 1.5 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 2 tbsp unrefined cane sugar
  • 0.5 dl wheat bran
  • 0.5 dl oat bran, flax seeds, sunflower seeds
  • 1 large egg
  • Ca. 4 dl buttermilk or kefir
Combine the flours in a bowl and add the cold butter cut into pieces. Work the butter with your fingers until even-sized crumbs form. Add the soda, salt, sugar, bran and seeds to the flour and butter mixture. In a separate bowl, beat an egg and pour kefir or buttermilk on it. Pour the liquid into the mixture of dry ingredients and butter and mix through. The result should be a thick dough. Shape the dough as a round loaf with floured hands, sprinkle some wholemeal flour on top and put it in a greased baking tray. Press cross-shaped lines on the loaf with either a spatula or another blunt utensil (e.g., a wooden spoon). The goal is to make slight grooves into the dough, not cut through the dough. Bake the bread at 200–210 °C for about 40 minutes until the crust is moderately brown and crisp. The bread tastes the best while warm and with a generous amount of butter. You may sprinkle some salt over the butter. Keep the bread in a box or wrapped in plastic to prevent it from drying out.