SODA BREAD IN A POT

I promised a less indulgent new year. Yes I did.

I started 2025 with a soup. The first recipe I wrote, the first thing I made, and the first step in a series of good intentions was indeed, a damn soup. This soup, to be exact.

Good though it was, let’s be honest, sometimes the success of a soup can’t be measured by how many spinach leaves are stirred into it, but by how good the bread was that was dunked into it.

NOT ALWAYS – I’m not going back on my word, I promise – not every soup of mine will be accompanied by a big, wobbling stack of thickly buttered bread. But sometimes, that’s okay. It’s okay, right?

I don’t know if I’m convincing you or me here, but hopefully someone is convinced because this bread, whether it’s being used to smuggle soup into my body, or if it’s just used as a humble piece of toast in the morning, is truly outstanding.

I make soda bread more than any bread – not a boast whatsoever, because I assume as someone who loves cooking that I make more bread in one year than any one person in a whole lifetime, and I’m not any better for it, but if you were fancying making some homemade bread, this is a very good way to go.

It’s so simple. No yeast, no proofing in, no wondering if the temperature of the hiding place is too high or too low, no sweaty panicking if your kneading method is good enough… it’s literally no drama.

You can take this exact recipe here and cut your dough into little balls, roll them in the palms of your hands into small balls and bake them for the same amount of time without the pot to give you little soda buns, but I like doing it in the pot because it gives the loaf a golden crust and a soft, tender crumb.

So yes, I am still eating lighter, I PROMISE, those greens have never been more alluring (sure) but let’s not get carried away. My mam once said to me, that in life, we should never give up something temporarily if we don’t intend on giving it up forever, and as I have no intention of living a life without bread, it has to form a part of my new 2025 diet.

Have I convinced anyone? No. Sod it, let’s bake the damn thing anyway.

Makes 1 loaf which serves roughly 6 – 8

500g plain flour (plus extra for dusting)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp bicarb of soda

1 tbs honey

400ml buttermilk (or same amount of full-fat milk soured with 1 tbs lemon juice or apple cider vinegar)

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C and put a large, ovenproof pot that comes with a lid, in the oven to warm while the oven preheats.
2. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients – flour, salt, bicarb – and mix with a fork.
3. Pour in the honey and buttermilk or soured milk and mix. I like to use a dough whisk (a beautiful and strange looking piece of equipment, please Google it) but a wooden spoon is fine, or even, your hands if you’re in the mood. Be careful not to overwork it though, just mix it enough to come together into a wet dough, which will feel far too sticky than you think you’d want it to, but it’ll be fine.
4. Scatter some flour on a clean work surface and empty the wettish dough on to the flour.
5. Using your hands, very gently just knead it – don’t worry about your skill level – until it takes on a slightly firmer hold. Shape it into a roundish ball using your hands, don’t worry too much about neatness.
6. Carefully remove the pot from the oven and add some baking paper to the base of the pot. You want a bit of overhang to the pot, to make it easier to lift the bread out of the pot once baked.
7. Place the dough into the pot, sprinkle it with a little more flour, pop on the lid, and put it back into the oven for about 30 minutes.
8. The lid on the pot will create a little bit of steam inside it which will give the bread a crisp crust, but we want to push this further, so after 30 minutes, remove the pot from the oven, take off the lid, and put it back in for a further 10 – 15 minutes.
9. After this time, remove the bread and carefully remove from the pot. If you tap the bottom of the bread gently with your fingers and it sounds hollow, it will be perfect, otherwise, just pop it back in the oven for another 5 – 10 mins.
10. Serve with all the butter (I mean… healthy soup…) and try and eat it within a day or two. Soda bread is always at it’s absolute peak when eaten fresh or the next day or two.