30 Minute Irish Soda Bread

As the weather cools down, my dinner thoughts tend to turn to delicious soups. And nothing goes quite so well with soup as freshly baked bread!

On a cool evening, there is something incredibly nourishing about a hot bowl of soup and warm, crusty bread. We’re not exactly into the cool weather yet here in Central Texas but the leaves are starting to change and the afternoons aren’t so blistering hot (I even say temps in the 70s on next week’s forecast!). That means it’s time to start busting out the hearty, vegetable based soups that are so much a part of the taste of Fall.

Yesterday, I experimented with a yummy looking new recipe from the Team Beachbody blog. Once it started cooking, I just knew it needed a thick, crusty bread to go with it. I started to call my husband to pick something up on the way home, but I’ve been making a point to get back to from-scratch cooking. I had the forty or so minutes it would take to make Soda Bread, so that’s what I went with.

Baking your own bread is therapeutic. It’s a little messy, very hands on, and one of those skills I think everyone should have. While bread is no longer a staple of our diet since we limit grains, sometimes a slice of fresh bread is just the taste of homey-ness you need. Most of the breads I make are slow rise – meaning they take about 24 hours from start to finish. Sometimes, like yesterday, I just don’t think that far ahead and soda bread is the answer for those occasions.

Ingredients

3 2/3 cups All Purpose Flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 3/4 cups milk

2 tbsp lemon juice

Method

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet with either a silicone liner or by oiling it
Add lemon juice to a liquid measuring cup, then pour in the milk, stirring to combine. If you happen to have buttermilk, you can use 1 3/4 cups of that instead of doing this step.
Combine flour, salt and baking soda in a large mixing bowl. Making a well in the center, pour in the milk/lemon juice mixture. Mix well (go ahead and use your hands, it’s the only way to really work the dough) until the dough is soft. It shouldn’t be a wet, sticky dough.
On a lightly floured counter top, knead the dough lightly. Shape into a circular loaf, place on the baking sheet and use a sharp knife to cut an X into the top.
Bake for 30 minutes until lightly browned. When done, tapping the bottom will produce a hollow sound. Let cool for five minutes on a wire rack before serving.