Cherry and Lemon Spelt Soda Bread

This cherry and lemon spelt soda bread is lightly sweetened with honey. Fast and easy to make, it is ready to eat in less than an hour.

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I love soda bread. It is quick (sooo quick) to make, tastes great and is made with only a handful of ingredients.

What ingredients do you need to make soda bread?

I’m not kidding when I say that soda bread is the easiest bread to make. There’s no yeast, no proofing, and no fancy ingredients.

Soda bread originates from Ireland and was developed after baking soda was introduced into the country in the early nineteenth century. Traditionally, it was made with ingredients that were easy (and cheap) to come by: flour, salt, baking soda and sour milk. Although the first three ingredients are still used as the basis for soda bread, buttermilk or Greek yoghurt is now more often used in the place of sour milk.

I don’t always stick to the basic ingredients, though. In the past, I’ve made divinely more-ish cheddar soda bread and wholemeal caraway seeded bread. That’s the awesome thing about soda bread: it is so diverse and adaptable.

I usually make my soda bread with Greek yoghurt, rather than milk. This time though, I went with regular milk and lemon juice, which, as you may know, creates a lovely homemade buttermilk.

This is not a classic soda bread. For starters, there is no trademark deep cross carved into the top. I’ve also made it sweeter (rather than savoury). The dough is also much wetter, which means that you need to pour it out on to a tray, rather than pat it into shape (check out my video below):

Can you have sweet soda bread?

Yes. Of course. Well, why not? As we’ve already ascertained, I don’t like to stick too tightly to classic recipes and prefer to adapt them.

I made a lovely little raisin bread for my YouTube channel, but this time, I decided to go for fresh cherries. Soda bread is a fairly healthy recipe. It has no butter, oil or eggs, so it would be a shame to pump it full of sugar. The sweetness in this recipe comes from a tablespoon of honey in the dough, and a liberal brushing of honey on the top. That’s it. So, although it’s definitely not a savoury soda bread, it is not overly sweet, either.

What can you serve with soda bread?

I like mine fresh from the oven, with perhaps a smidgen (okay, a lot) of butter. The day after, I enjoy my soda bread lightly toasted with butter (again) or even a slather of jam.

Soda bread is a fairly dense bread, so I wouldn’t personally eat it as part of a traditional sandwich (with two pieces of bread), but it would be awesome with a topping of cheese, ham, or anything else you fancy. I think soda bread would be fabulous as a side for a full English breakfast. Imagine mopping up all those egg and bacon fat juices? Alternatively, why not dip it into your favourite hearty soup, or to make a meal out of a winter stew?

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