Irish Soda Bread – cooking with toddlers

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It’s getting near St Patrick’s Day and all of the inspiring posts I shared with our St Patrick’s Day Activities for Tots got me in the mood to make some Irish Soda Bread with T this week. Such a simple recipe to make and even though we had to make our own buttermilk it tasted delicious and T and I enjoyed it for lunch warm with butter and homemade blackberry jam from the autumn. So here we go a simple Irish Soda Bread Recipe perfect for cooking with kids for St Patrick’s Day.

 Simple Irish Soda Bread Recipe

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6oz of Self Raising Flour
6oz of Plain Flour (all purpose flour)
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of Baking Soda
1/2 pint of full-fat Milk
1/2 tsp of lemon juice

Making the Irish Soda Bread

I started off by turning our milk into “buttermilk” by mixing the full-fat milk with the lemon juice – this creates a great substitute for buttermilk when you don’t have any to hand. Switch the oven on to 200C to heat up and line a baking tray with some greaseproof paper. Leaving those on the side T and I got to measuring out our ingredients and added all the dry ingredients to a bowl and mixed it up.

We then poured in the milk/lemon juice and mixed it up – it’s a very sticky dough and we added a bit more flour to make it a little less sticky and then turned it out and I got kneading with T to get a dough made to go in the oven.

We shaped it into a fairly round shape and cut a cross in the top – every recipe that I looked at had a cross being part of the process and then I searched more – the baking reason behind the cross is that the heat can get into the centre of the bread – the folk tales is that it is a sign for the fairies to protect the soda bread as it bakes. We then put it on the baking tray and into the oven for 30 minutes.

We let the bread cool down a little and then had it with butter and jam for lunch – a perfect St Patrick’s Day lunch for you and your toddler to make together and then enjoy together.

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Irish Soda Bread Recipe

Easy St Patrick's Day Recipe to make traditional Irish Soda Bread perfect for cooking with kids as young as toddlers. Includes instructions on making your own buttermilk.

Author: Cerys Parker

Ingredients

• 6 oz Self Raising Flour
• 6 oz Plain Flour All purpose Flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 pint full-fat Milk 10 FLoz
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice

Instructions

Making Buttermilk

1. Add your Lemon Juice to the full-fat milk.

2. Mix together until combined to create a buttermilk substitute.

Making Irish Soda Bread

1. Pre-Heat oven on to 200C.

2. Line a baking tray with some greaseproof paper. 

3. Add all the dry ingredients to a bowl and mix.

4. Add the milk/lemon juice mix.

5. If the dough is too sticky then add a bit more flour. 

6. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead.

7. Shape into a round and score with a cross on the top.

8. Place on the baking tray in the centre of the oven for 30 minutes.

9. Let the Bread cool and then serve with some butter and jam.

Recipe Notes

The cross on the top of the bread is to help the air escape as it cooks, or as the folklore says it's so that the fairies protect the bread as it bakes. I think I like the second reason better.

Discover what equipment you really need to regularly cook with kids – it’s not as much as you would think and most of the list we have put together are non-essentials but make time in the kitchen together a little easier.

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Shop this Recipe

Although I tend to use a lot of my own utensils when cooking with kids some of the things I have found it’s much safer and easier to buy specific equipment for the kids to use. The following are recommendations of the products that we used to create this recipe.

We have an earlier version of these Non-slip mixing bowls. They are perfect for using with kids as it tends to prevent much of the spilling that occurs when the bowls falls over. If you have toddler safe bowls then instead of buying new bowls I would recommend using a non-slip silicone cooking mat underneath the bowls to hold it in place – these double up as a non-stick surface as well and are great for keeping things in place.

I used to have a set of plastic measuring cups and spoons but over time they have deteriorated and in an effort not to bring any more plastic into the home I have purchased and use with the kids a set of metal measuring cups and spoons – this set has silicone handles which make them great for using with kids and I LOVE the fact that the handles are different colours meaning that you can ask for your child to get the green tablespoon or the blue teaspoon out.

I love my glass pyrex measuring jug for pints and 2 pints however I’m not keen on it getting broken when it slips out of my kids hands (mine was replaced twice when they were toddlers) so I purchased a set of measuring jugs from silicone from them – they are soft, easy to hold and pour from perfect for using with kids.

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Cerys Parker

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Cerys is a marine biologist, environmental educator, high school teacher and mum. Realising that life doesn't have to be put on hold and you don't just have to survive whilst the kids are young she shares ideas to inspire you to LIVE with the kids, with activities to do together, recipes to cook and enjoy and family travel to make memories to last a lifetime.

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