I’ve made a lot of Irish soda bread. My youngest son loves it and I got the recipe from
a friend of mine of Irish heritage- so I thought I was making a traditional recipe.
Turns out- no. Irish soda bread does not contain sugar, or currants or any kind of dried
fruit whatsoever.
So I’m sharing a recipe I got from a couple of websites on Irish traditional cooking.
A couple of the websites were pretty adamant about what WASN’T in soda bread that
they neglected to give the recipe. And a few more wrote about putting together flour,salt,
soda, and buttermilk without any instructions. So I pieced together the information and used
my own experience and made a marvelous loaf whilst in Chincoteague. It is like a biscuit-y tea
loaf- delicious with butter and orange marmalade- wonderful with a slice of corned beef!
Ingredients:
4 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
14 oz (1 cup 3/4 ) buttermilk
Method:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Grease and flour round cake pan.
Whisk or sift together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add butter milk and stir to a sticky dough.
Dump onto a heavily floured surface and knead lightly- just for a minute or so- you don’t want to
release too much of the leavening gasses in overkneading.
Shape into a large round and cut a cross into the top. Cover pan with another the same size- to keep
the bread moist and steam as well as bake.
Bake for 30 minutes and then remove top pan and bake for another 15 minutes.
The crust is a lovely thick brown when done and will sound hollow when thumped.
Cool with a damp tea towel on to top to keep it moist.
Try to wait till it cools before cutting.
Although it is very tempting – still try to wait – or the knife will crush the crumb.
Add braised cabbage, skillet fried potatoes, and corned beef and have a wonderful
St. Patrick’s Day feast!
Your pictures make me so hungry! Everything looks so delicious, makes me wish I had gone with you. I very happy you are home.
Heidi, I trust your bread wisdom implicitly, so I’m going to try soda bread again, using your recipe. I can’t say I’ve ever had any luck with it before – it’s always ended up a bit like stodgy cake!
It is a bit stodgy if you are expecting a cakey texture. I like it toasted- and then I consider it like an American biscuit – somewhere between a cracker and a tea bread. Great for soaking up gravies- good with butter and jam-
I really like it.
I’m not a big soda bread eater but as a quick bread it is so useful when you have no time to wait for a yeasted or a sourdough to make and you need bread on the table. Yours looks beautifully simple and the crust just amazing 🙂
I don’t usually like quick breads either, Joanna.
This just worked very well- and I was thrilled with the aroma and the beauty of the crust. All in all- a very nice tea bread.