English Soda Bread

Preheat oven to 425 F ! Mix all the ingredients together by hand with a fork as you would for biscuits, i.e. gently and quickly until a dough ball forms, leaving the sides of the bowl. Place dough on a greased baking sheet. Use a piece of plastic wrap to cover the dough so you can easily shape it into a round loaf with your hands.( its a sticky dough thats why ) Remove plastic, use a sharpe knife and cut, slash an "X" accross the top of the dough. Dust top of loaf with flour.( for looks only ) Now use a large metal bowl and completely cover the loaf with it! Bake in the preheated 425F oven for 30 minutes. Remove bowl ,( careful, steam will escape,) and return bread to the oven and bake another 30 minutes at 425 or until golden. You should have a crusty loaf with a lovely moist interior. Note: my bread finished baking in 15 minutes after the bowl was removed not 30 and was a good golden brown. This truely tastes best when served warm. Posted to Digest bread-bakers.v096.n070 From: LIR119@delphi.com Date: Thu, 26 Dec 1996 08:32:19 -0500 (EST)