Written by Annalisa

This is from Matthew Fort’s column in the Guardian, 1st January 2007. It is FANTASTIC.

Auntie Mary’s super soda bread

One of my wife’s family heirlooms, this superior soda bread takes no kneading, no proving, no skill and no time, except the baking part. It eats well enough on its own, and it toasts very well indeed.

2 x 284ml pots buttermilk

420g wholemeal flour

3-4 tbsp sunflower seeds

2 tbsp sesame seeds

2 tbsp linseed

150g oats

1 tsp muscovado sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. Put one pot of buttermilk into a bowl. Add two-thirds of the wholemeal flour, all the sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and linseed. Then add the second pot of buttermilk, the remaining flour, the oats, muscovado sugar, salt and bicarbonate of soda. Mix thoroughly. Grease a baking tin with butter. Scrape the mixture into the tin. Smooth the top and drop the tin on the table top a couple of times to make sure the mixture has settled. Bake for one hour. Turn off oven and turn out bread and leave in oven for a further 10 minutes.