What is your Irish Soda Bread Recipe?!


Question: Everytime I make it, it comes out bland...nothing like the bakery version.

What is your Irish Soda Bread Recipe?


Answers: Everytime I make it, it comes out bland...nothing like the bakery version.

What is your Irish Soda Bread Recipe?

INGREDIENTS
4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
6 tablespoons cold butter or margarine
1 1/2 cups raisins
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, combine the first five ingredients. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the raisins and caraway seeds. Set aside 1 tablespoon beaten egg. In a bowl, combine buttermilk and remaining eggs; stir into crumb mixture just until flour is moistened (dough will be sticky). Turn onto a well-floured surface; knead about 10 times. Shape into a ball.
Place in a greased 9-in. round baking pan. Cut a 4-in. X, 1/4-in. deep, in the center of the ball. Brush the top with reserved egg. Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cover loosely with foil during the last 20 minutes if top browns too quickly. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to a wire rack to cool completely.

here is a soda bread cookie on too...

INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup dried currants
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon caraway seed

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. With a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in currants.
Mix in beaten egg. Pour in milk and mix with a fork to make a soft dough (may need a little more milk).
On a floured surface, shape dough into a ball and knead lightly 5 or 6 times. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick and cut into squares and triangles with a knife (approximately 2 inches in diameter).
Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until slightly browned

soda bread is bland if your cooking it the traditional way.
The basic soda bread is made with flour, baking soda, salt, and soured milk (or buttermilk). That's it!

One on-line recipe claiming to be "traditional" included "orange zest" as an ingredient. As if our poverty-stricken ancestors even knew what orange zest was. An orange was a special treat during Christmas, not a common item in the kitchen like it is today. Another recipe has chocolate in it and another calls for a sugar glaze over the "bread." Tasty, Yes! Traditional Irish Soda Bread, No!

You'll find site recipes for "traditional Irish Soda Bread" that call for yeast to be used. The whole reason bread soda was used in the first place was to replace using yeast as the rising agent.

There are even commercial sites selling "Irish Soda Bread" with YEAST as an ingredient. And right before St. Patrick's Day your local supermarket chain will have "Irish Soda Bread" for sale with yeast, sugar, and who knows what on the listed ingredients. But stores mostly will add raisins and dried fruit. Most look like a fruitcake recipe repackaged from the Christmas holidays. The same recipe usually shows up as "Easter Bread" a few weeks later. For the most part they taste great but they are mislabeled as "Irish Soda Bread."

While we are certainly at liberty to modify recipes to our heart's content, it is incorrect to claim that these modern sugary recipes are the same as used by our great-great grandmothers in Ireland, a poor country at the time, to feed their families in the latter part of the 19th century and early 20th century. It was often the only bread available to most Irish families. Can you imagine this woman even knowing what a "zester" is?

In today's world, soda bread has become a dessert cake and the three-leaf shamrock has turned into a four-leaf clover


http://www.sodabread.us/

Irish Soda Bread Recipe

4 to 4 1/2 cups flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 Tbsp butter
1 cup raisins
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 cups buttermilk
Preheat oven to 425°. Sift together 4 cups of flour, the sugar, salt, and baking soda into a large mixing bowl.

2 Using a pastry cutter or two knives, work butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal, then stir in raisins.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Add beaten egg and buttermilk to well and mix in with a wooden spoon until dough is too stiff to stir. Dust hands with a little flour, then gently knead dough in the bowl just long enough to form a rough ball. If the dough is too sticky to work with, add in some more flour. Do not overknead! Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and shape into a round loaf.
Transfer dough to a large, lightly greased cast-iron skillet or a baking sheet. Using a serrated knife, score top of dough about 1/2'' deep in an "X" shape. Transfer to oven and bake until bread is golden and bottom sounds hollow when tapped with a knife, about 35-45 minutes. (If you use a cast iron pan, it may take a little longer as it takes longer for the pan to heat up than a baking sheet.) Check for doneness also by inserting a long, thin skewer into the center. If it comes out clean, it's done.

Hint 1: If the top is getting too dark while baking, tent the bread with some aluminum foil.

Hint 2: If you use a cast iron skillet to cook the bread in the oven, be very careful when you take the pan out. It's easy to forget that the handle is extremely hot. Cool the handle with an ice cube, or put a pot holder over it.

Transfer bread to a rack to let cool briefly. Serve bread warm, at room temperature, or sliced and toasted.

Both of the following recipes were researched in Ireland. I enjoy both of them.

White Soda Bread - yield 1 loaf

4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450F.
Sieve dry ingredients, making a well in the center.
Pour most of the buttermilk in at once.
One handed, stir in flour from sides into center without breaking the wall. Add more buttermilk as needed.
Dough should be softish, not too wet and sticky.
Well fully brought together, turn it onto a floured board and knead lightly just enough to tidy it up.
Pat into a round 2 inches high, and cut a cross on it. (Make sure the cut is all the ways over the sides as well to be sure to let all the fairies out!)
Place onto baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, then turn down to 400F and bake for a further 20-30 minutes or until cooked.
When done, if you tap the bottom of the loaf, it will sound hollow.
Place on rack to cool.

PS: If you want a soft crust instead of a proper hard crust, wrap the fresh baked loaf in a tea towel when set to cool.
--------------------------------------...
Brown Soda Bread - yield 2 loaves

4 cups stoneground whole wheat flour
4 cups flour
3 rounded tsp salt
2 rounded tsp baking soda, sieved
3 - 3 1/4 cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450F.
Mix dry ingredients, making a well in the center.
Pour most of the buttermilk in at once.
One handed, stir in flour from sides into center without breaking the wall. Add more buttermilk as needed.
Dough should be soft, but not sticky.
Well fully brought together, turn it onto a floured board and knead lightly just enough to shape into a round.
Pat into a round 2 inches high, place onto baking sheet, and cut a deep cross.
Bake for 15-20 minutes in the preheated oven, then turn down to 400F and bake for a further 20-25 minutes or until cooked.
When done, if you tap the bottom of the loaf, it will sound hollow.
Place on rack to cool.





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