Brown Soda Bread

In the second recipe from my new Darina Allen book I decided to go all Irish and make Brown Soda Bread. My mother used to make this when we were growing up and then bought it when it was too much bother to make. It's an Irish tradition. Bread is always one of those things that is just a little bit to much bother, isn't it? All that proving, rising, kneading etc you have to have a hole day just to make one loaf. And then you have to eat it straight away, 1. because it's so good just out of the oven and 2. it will go stale fairly quickly. I know that there is the bread maker which makes the whole process a bit easier but then it's not handmade.... I know! Well, the answer may be soda bread. No yeast involved. It's just bread flour, an egg, buttermilk, salt and bicarbonate of soda. These are just mixed together, put into a lightly greased tin and cooked for about an hour. You get perfect brown bread that is great fresh from the oven and when it's a couple of days old it's great toasted (with smoked salmon, poached egg and hollandaise sauce). So it will never be a problem to make bread again, I will never complain again just get my buttermilk and bicarb out and Bob's your uncle!