World's Best No Yeast Bread - Irish Soda Bread!

1. Flour – wholemeal flour gives this bread a slightly nutty flavour which is lovely. Coarse or fine ground. Can be made with just plain/all purpose flour but flavour is more plain. Don’t bother using bread flour – it’s wasted on this no yeast bread.

2. Baking soda – also known as bicarbonate soda (bi-carb), 3x more powerful than baking powder. Stronger rise power required for this no-yeast bread.

3. Buttermilk substitute:

1.75 cups (435ml) + 1 tbsp of full fat milk 1 tbsp white vinegar or lemon juice (or other clear vinegar) Mix the milk and lemon juice together, set aside for 15 minutes. It will congeal on surface. Then use in place of buttermilk in recipe. Volume is just shy of 2 cups of buttermilk (per recipe) because this substitute is thinner so you need to use a touch less otherwise dough gets too wet.

4. Dough stickiness – use more flour as required. The trick is to use just enough flour to make the dough manageable because stickier dough = more moist bread.

5. Variations –This bread is terrific as is, it’s a classic traditional Irish Soda Bread. Some popular flavoured versions (stir in with dry ingredients):

Oats – brush surface with extra buttermilk and sprinkle with oats. Can also mix in oats (up to 1 cup), but reduce flour in dough by 1/2 cup; Raisins! Stir in 1 cup Seeds!Pumpkin, linseeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, poppyseed. Stir through and sprinkle on top, about 1/2 cup.

6. Serving –Especially great served warm! Use like normal bread – sandwiches, dunking, mopping plates clean, toasting, grilled cheese.

7. Storage – keeps well for 3 days in an airtight container, 4 to 5 days in the fridge. Or freeze it for months!

8. Nutrition per slice.