Bake Irish soda bread

Before you begin

• Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. There's also more guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
• Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
• Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help. 

Using a kitchen and preparing to cook  

• You could run our kitchen safety and hygiene activities, Kitchen risk bingo and Home kitchen hygiene prior to running this session. 
• Remember to have a hand washing station and take extra hygiene precautions when handling raw meat, such as regular hand washing, having separate equipment for raw and cooked meat, and washing up equipment as soon as it's been used. Take a look at our guidance on food preparation. 
• Make sure you have all the ingredients ready.  
• Remember to check your ingredients against any allergy or dietary requirements to ensure everyone can enjoy the recipe. This may mean using alternative ingredients. 

Having a safe cooking source 

• Make sure that everyone’s fires have been built outdoors in clear, open areas, with plenty of ventilation, and away from any areas where people will be sleeping.  
• All the fires need to burn down to hot embers before they can start cooking. This increases the chance of the fuel burning without enough oxygen present, increasing the risk of carbon monoxide exposure. We’ve more guidance on different cooking methods. 
• If using a gas stove, make sure it’s on a stable heatproof surface and in a clear and open area, with plenty of ventilation. 

Setting up the activity 

1. An adult volunteer should preheat the oven to 200°c/180°c fan/Gas mark 6. 
2. Put out any tables you might be using, along with ingredients, copies of the recipe and equipment.  

Running the activity 

1. Split everyone into groups of four and ask everyone to wash their hands. 
2. Gather everyone together and tell them you’re going to make Irish soda bread. You may be doing this activity to celebrate St Patrick’s Day. 
3. Everyone should take their bowl and recipe.  
4. Sieve both flours into a large bowl. 
5. Now add the bicarbonate of soda and salt into the large bowl with the flour and mix well. 
6. Make a small well in the centre.  
7. Pour the buttermilk into the well. Mix it in quickly to form a soft dough. The dough shouldn’t be too sticky. If it is, add a small amount of flour. If the dough is too stiff, add a small amount of milk. 
8. Lightly flour the table and place your dough on it. 
9. Knead the bread for around five minutes. This can be done by pushing the dough away from you with the bottom of your palm, folding the dough over itself with your fingers, and pulling it back. You then repeat the process. 
10. Shape the dough into a circle, place it on your baking tray and cut a small cross on the top. 
11. Bake the bread for around 30 minutes. You may want an adult volunteer to cook all the breads while young people take part in another activity, depending on if you can run both activities in-line with the Yellow Card and ratios. 
12. When the bread is ready an adult volunteer should bring it out of the oven and place it on a heatproof surface, away from young people. Let it cool for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. To check if the bread is ready you can tap on it, and it should sound hollow. 
13. Once cooked, everyone can give their bread a try – perhaps with some butter – or people may want to take them home and that’s OK, too. 
14. Remember that everyone can get involved in tidying and washing up afterwards.