Fruit Soda Bread
A quick and easy, light and fruity soda bread. Delicious sliced and buttered, great toasted too.
For a well risen Fruit Soda Bread, work quickly and don't handle the dough too much.
Ingredients
- 100 g mixed dried fruit e.g. sultanas, raisins, currants
- 125 ml plain yogurt see Recipe Note 1
- 125 ml milk see Recipe Note 1
- 200 g plain white flour see Recipe Note 2
- 100 g plain wholemeal flour see Recipe Note 2
- 1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda see Recipe Note 3
- 1 pinch salt
- 50 g caster sugar
Instructions
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To make the dried fruit plumper, pour over boiling water from a kettle and leave to soak while you prepare the other ingredients. Drain thoroughly.
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Preheat your oven to 200c / 180 Fan / Gas 6 with a shelf in the middle position.
Line a baking tray with baking paper and sprinkle it with flour.
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Stir together the yogurt and milk.
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Stir together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
Sift it into a large mixing bowl.
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Stir the dried fruit and sugar into the flour.
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Note: from this step until you put the bread in the oven it's important to work quickly. The bicarbonate of soda is activated as soon as it's mixed with the liquid so try to get it in the oven within 3-4 minutes.
Make a well in the centre of the flour then pour approximately 3/4 of the yogurt and milk mixture into it.
Stir to combine into a sticky, ragged dough which still holds its shape, adding more of the liquid as needed. You may not need all the liquid, but make sure there are no dry bits of flour as this can affect the taste and even the colour of the finished loaf. See blog images as a guide to how the dough should look.
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Scrape the dough onto the middle of the baking paper.
Use a palette knife or similar, dipped in flour, to push the dough into a circle approximately 14 cm in diameter.
Dip a sharp knife in flour and cut a deep cross into the dough without going all the way through.
Optional: If you have any of the yogurt and milk left over, brush it over the top of the bread as a glaze.
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Immediately put in the oven and bake for 30 minutes (turn around halfway through if your oven cooks unevenly) or until the bread is risen, deep golden in colour and sounds hollow when tapped underneath.
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Transfer to a wire rack to cool before slicing and serving spread with butter plus jam if liked.
Best eaten within 2 days or can be frozen. Excellent toasted and spread with butter on the second day.
Recipe Notes
Note #1 Liquid. To activate the bicarbonate of soda which causes the bread to rise, the liquid needs to be acidic. I get best results using half plain yogurt and half whole milk. However, you can replace this with buttermilk OR 1 tablespoon of lemon juice stirred into milk and left for 10 minutes.
Note #2 Flour. You can replace more of the white flour with wholemeal if you prefer, but your soda bread will not rise as much. Do not use bread flour for soda bread, only plain flour.
Note #3 Bicarbonate of Soda. Do not use products labelled baking powder for soda bread, only bicarbonate of soda (or baking soda in the US). If your pack has been open for more than 6 months, even if it's within the Best Before date, it's probably best to replace it. Don't be tempted to use more than stated in the recipe: level a teaspoonful by drawing the flat edge of a knife across it to remove excess.