I like denser bread and I didn’t have time for yeasted bread, so soda bread with sundried tomatoes and wholemeal flour was the obvious choice. I love soda bread, since I baked it at home for the first time last year. I had a bag of organic and local wholemeal flour that was grinded in an old Victorian mill still in use today.

Ingredients for a big loaf of Soda bread with sundried tomatoes:

– 720g plain wholemeal flour
– 600ml buttermilk
– 2 spoons of olive oil
– 8 pieces of sundried tomatoes, cut in slices
– 1 tsp sea salt
– 1 tsp and a quarter of bicarbonate of soda

Start by heating the oven at 200C/180C fan.

In a bowl, mix the wholemeal flour with the bicarbonate and salt. Make a well and pour the buttermilk and the olive oil in the middle. Mix it with a spoon until it starts to thicken, tip it on the floured worktop and start incorporating all the flour. You can do this with a stand mixer. Add the sundried tomatoes and mix until they are incorporated in the dough. This dough doesn’t need kneading at all, as soon as all the flour is incorporated you can stop. Give it the shape of a loaf. You can flatten it until is 3-4 cm tall and cut an X on top of it with a sharp knife. Dust the loaf with flour.

Put the loaf on an oiled baking tray or use baking paper. Bake the bread for 35-45 minutes. When is baked, it should sound hollow when the bottom is tapped. If it’s not baked, leave it in the oven for a little bit more. Leave it on a cooling rack for 5-10 minutes and it’s ready to be served.

Do you like soda bread? Would you like to try soda bread with sundried tomatoes or do you prefer a simple bread?