Lemon and Basil Soda Bread

My eldest daughter’s favourite meal is pasta with tomato sauce.  Her ritual is to eat the first serving, have seconds by adding more plain pasta to the sauce she hasn’t finished and finally (because we don’t let her have thirds!) she mops up the last slurps of tomato sauce with some bread.

She observed we didn’t have any the other day so I taught her this simple loaf while the pasta sauce was cooking.  It was that quick!

YOU’LL NEED

•  350g plain flour
• 0.5 tsp salt
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
•  150g milk
• 150g plain yoghurt
• (or 300g buttermilk instead of the milk and yoghurt)
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Juice of half a lemon
• Handful of fresh basil leaves – chopped coarsely

TO MAKE IT

1. Preheat the oven to 200C
2. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and set aside.
3. Mix the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda, lemon zest and chopped basil leaves into a bowl and give it a good stir with a fork.
4. Make a well and then pour in the lemon juice, milk and yoghurt.
5. Mix it quickly and lightly using the fork until it comes together into a soft dough
6. Turn it out onto a floured surface and knead it really lightly into a round shape.
7. Put it onto the floured baking tray.
8. Take a ruler and press the edge down onto the loaf vertically and horizontally like the lines on a hot cross bun.  Go almost all the way down to the baking tray.
9. Bake for around 40 minutes until it’s golden brown.

You could try the chilli version of this or opt for a sweet version by adding a tablespoon of sugar instead of the salt along with some dried apricots, walnuts or fresh blueberries …