Irish Soda Bread

Day 4 fasting.......tak tau nak makan apa malam ni. Selalunya lepas Isyak hubby baru makan his dinner, today he just got back from Penang and seeing him tired make me think of something to bake for him, not a dessert but something different for him to enjoy after Terawih later.
Masak simple je untuk berbuka hari ni sebab tak cukup masa, tumis sardin dengan goreng sayur. For bersantai lepas Terawih I bake Irish Soda Bread! Simple and easy to make and hubby like it, maybe because of the Irish blood in him.....hehehehe ! Eat it fresh with butter or jam, you'll enjoy it.
Recipe from Lorraine Pascale.


Ingredient

• 370g/13oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 130g/4½oz wholemeal flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 40g/1½oz butter, melted
• 1 tbsp black treacle
• 300–340ml/11–12fl oz buttermilk (or alternatively use warm milk plus 1 tbsp lemon juice)

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6 and ensure the top shelf in the oven is in position.
   
2. Place the flours, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a large bowl and stir together. Make a large hole in the centre of the flour mixture and pour in the melted butter and treacle, plus enough of the buttermilk to make a loose sticky dough.
   
3. Tip the dough onto a lightly dusted work surface. The dough will be quite sticky. Knead the dough for one minute, then shape it into a large ball with a taut, smooth top. Place the dough on a baking tray and flatten it a bit - I find the easiest way to do this is with a rolling pin.
   
4. Take a wooden spoon, put some flour over the whole handle, then hold it horizontally over the bread. Put the wooden spoon handle on top of the bread then push it down until you feel the baking tray at the bottom. This mark is the first half of the trademark soda bread cross. Repeat with a line at right angles to this.
   
5. Dust with some flour then bake in the oven for 30–40 minutes, or until the bread is brown, has risen nicely and the dough inside where the cross was made is not damp.
   
6. Serve fresh from the oven with butter and jam. This bread does not keep well, so is best eaten on the day that it is baked – but if you have any left, it does make good toast.