Store-cupboard soda bread recipe

I love soda bread. It’s best of all made with half plain white flour and half plain wholemeal, but it can be made with any flour, including strong bread flour. Even buckwheat or chickpea (gram) flour work, although don’t expect it to taste the same as the wheat version.

Adding some porridge oats gives a lovely texture, but just leave them out if you don’t have any. Got some hulled linseed or other seeds like pumpkin or sunflower? Add a handful in, saving a few to sprinkle over the top before baking. If you have some milk which has gone off - not foul smelling, just a bit cheesy or yogurty - then this is the ideal opportunity to use it.

Timings

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 40 minutes

Makes

One loaf

Ingredients

• 500g flour (white, a mixture, or brown)

• 1 tsp salt

• 2 level tsp bicarbonate of soda

• 1 tbsp butter (optional)

• 150g porridge oats, roughly chopped in a food processor (optional)

• 1 tsp honey, treacle or 2 tsp sugar (any kind)

• 2 tbsp vinegar or lemon juice

• 400ml milk

Swaps

• No bicarb? Use 3 tsp baking powder instead - you won’t need any vinegar or lemon juice.

• No milk? Use plain yogurt instead of the milk and leave out the vinegar/lemon juice. Or use water instead of milk, adding an extra teaspoonful of honey or treacle.

• No vinegar or lemon juice? 2 tsp cream of tartar will do fine instead - add it at the same time as the bicarb.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/Gas 6.

2. Mix the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda. Rub in the butter until it has all but disappeared into the flour. Stir in the porridge oats, if you are using them.

3. Mix together the honey (or treacle or sugar), vinegar or lemon juice and half the milk. Stir this mixture into the flour, then add enough of the rest of the milk to make a soft dough. Don’t knead it: the trick is to handle it as little as possible.

4. Tip the dough on to a greased baking sheet and shape it into a 20cm circle. Cut a cross in the top, so deep and large that you are almost cutting the dough into four. Bake for 25-30 minutes and cool on a wire rack. Soda bread is best eaten the day it is made.

• Read more: Our guide to the best bread makers