Soda bread in a covered pan rather than an oven is a real technique. The timings are the part most likely to need adjusting.
Soda bread rises by acid meeting bicarbonate, not yeast, so there is no proving, which is exactly why it suits a cupboard with no fresh yeast.
- Whisk the milk powder into 200 ml of cold water and stir in the vinegar. It will thicken and look slightly curdled. That is the point: it is standing in for buttermilk.
- Flour, bicarbonate and salt mixed well, mix the bicarb through properly or you get bitter pockets.
- Liquid in, brought together with a hand into a rough shaggy dough. Handle it as little as possible. Kneading soda bread makes it tough.
- Shape into a flat round about 3 cm thick. Cut a deep cross in the top.
- Oiled pan on the lowest heat, lid on. 15 minutes. Turn carefully. Another 15 with the lid on.
It is done when it sounds hollow tapped underneath. If the outside is dark and the middle is raw, the heat was too high: there is no fixing that batch, but the next one will be right.
Serves 4.