Mummy's Brown Soda Bread

By mm_food4me

Darina says "In our household of nine children, Mummy made this bread virtually every day of her life, well into her 80s. She always had a light hand at baking. Wherever we were, her bread was one of the things that we looked forward to when we came home for a few days. So many happy memories are made at the kitchen table."

Ingredients

• 8 ozs/2 cups whole-meal flour
• 8 ozs/2 cups white flour
• 1 level teaspoon salt
• 1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (bread soda or baking soda), sieved
• 13-16 fl ozs/generous 1-1/2 - 2 cups) buttermilk (depending on the consistency of buttermilk)
• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F/gas mark 8.

Details

Servings 1
Adapted from cbsnews.com

Preparation

Step 1

Mix the flours in a large, wide bowl, then add the salt and bicarbonate of soda. Lift the flour up with your fingers to distribute the ingredients evenly.

Make a well in the centre and pour in the buttermilk. With your fingers stiff and outstretched like a claw, stir in a circular movement from the centre to the outside of the bowl in ever-increasing concentric circles. When you reach the outside of the bowl seconds later the dough is made.

Sprinkle a little flour on the worktop. Turn the dough out onto the flour. (fill the bowl with cold water now so it will be easy to wash later.) Wash and dry your hands to make it easier to handle the dough.

Sprinkle a little flour on your hands. Then gently tidy the ball of dough, tucking the edges underneath with the inner edge of your hands. Pat the dough gently with your fingers to flatten it slightly into a round loaf about 4cm (1 1?2 inch) thick. Slide one hand underneath and with your other hand on top transfer the dough to a baking tray.

Cut a deep cross into the bread (this is called 'blessing the bread') and then prick it in the centre of each of the four sections to 'let the fairies out'. There's also a practical reason for doing this - the last part of the loaf to bake fully is the centre, so cutting the cross opens out the centre during cooking, allowing the heat to penetrate more evenly.

Bake for 15 minutes, then turn the heat down to 400 degrees F/gas mark 6 and cook for a further 15 minutes. Turn the bread upside down and cook for a further

5-10 minutes, until cooked (the bottom should sound hollow when tapped). Leave to cool on a wire rack.