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500g plain white flour, plus extra for dusting

10g salt

4 tsp baking powder

300ml buttermilk, thin yoghurt, milk or water

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1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas Mark 6. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix in the buttermilk or other liquid to make a dough.

2. Knead briefly, divide into two, then shape into rough rounds. Pat to flatten until about 5cm high, flour the loaves all over and place on a baking tray. Now cut a cross in the top of each loaf, almost through to the bottom, then stab lightly all over.

3. Bake for 20–25 minutes or until the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the base, then allow to cool for a few minutes on a wire rack. Best eaten warm, with butter.

P.S. If you have time, try making your own buttermilk, which will also give you fresh butter to spread on your bread. Cream will eventually turn to butter when beaten, but it takes a while. Using a food mixer, beat 1 litre double cream until it thickens, then stiffens, then eventually (and very suddenly) separates. When it does, pour it through a fine sieve into a bowl. The liquid in the bowl is buttermilk. The residue in the sieve is butter. Squeeze and squidge the butter together, then hold it under cold running water and squeeze it a bit more to rinse off any buttermilk.

Variation - To make brown soda bread, replace the white flour with wholemeal and add a good tablespoonful of black treacle. This makes a sweeter, slightly heavier bread – excellent with a pint of Guinness and an Irish stew.