Bake a loaf of soda bread from scratch

"What if the smell in your kitchen came from four ingredients and 40 minutes?"

Why this is so fun

There is something almost ridiculous about how good soda bread smells when it is yours. Four ingredients, no yeast, no fuss — and forty minutes later you are tapping the bottom of a golden loaf listening for that hollow knock that tells you it worked. You learn that feeding people does not have to be complicated, and that patience pays off even in small ways. In Ireland, this bread is basically in our DNA, and making it yourself for the first time feels a little like unlocking something that was always yours to know.

Someone who did this

Cian (27), Tralee — works in IT support for a hotel group, makes sourdough starter videos he never posts

My mother made soda bread every Sunday growing up and I genuinely thought it was some kind of dark art she'd never share.

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First 3 steps

1Buy buttermilk, plain flour, bread soda and salt in any SuperValu this week.
2Watch a five-minute tutorial from Ballymaloe Cookery School on YouTube before you start.
3Book a bread-baking morning class at a local cookery school like Cooks Academy in Dublin.