Anyone got any recipes for soda bread?!
Anyone got any recipes for soda bread?
Answers:
Whiskey soda bread
This sweet bread is stuffed with whiskey-soaked raisins and orange rind and served with whiskey butter for a delicious variation of traditional Irish soda bread. If you don't want to use whiskey, simply soak the raisins in hot water.
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup Irish whiskey
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon grated orange rind
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1-1/3 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
Whiskey Butter:
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 tablespoon Irish whiskey
PREPARATION:
Soak raisins in Irish whiskey overnight.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and orange rind in a large bowl; mix well.
Stir in raisins mixture, blending well. Dissolve soda in buttermilk; add to flour mixture, stirring well. Stir in butter, mixing well. Spoon batter into a greased 2-quart casserole. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 50 minutes or until golden brown. Cut into squares, and serve with Whiskey Butter.
Basic recipe for white soda bread;
3 1/2 cups flour (either cake flour or all-purpose: but cake
flour works better)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
8-10 fluid ounces buttermilk
First, decide whether you're making farl or cake. If farl, find your heaviest griddle or non-sloping-sided frying pan (cast iron is best), and put it on to preheat at a low-medium heat
Farl should take about 20 minutes per side to get a slight toasty brown. If making cake, preheat the oven to 450 F and find a baking sheet.
Sift the dry ingredients together several times to make sure the bicarb is evenly distributed. Put the sifted dry ingredients in a good big bowl (you want stirring room) and make a well in the center. Pour about three-quarters of the buttermilk in, and start stirring. You are trying to achieve a dough that is raggy and very soft, but the lumps and rags of it should look dryish and "floury", while still being extremely squishy if you poke them. Add more liquid sparingly if you think you need it.
Blend quickly (but not too energetically!) until the whole mass of dough has become this raggy consistency. Then turn the contents of the bowl out immediately onto a lightly floured board or work surface, and start to knead.
The chief concern here is speed: the chemical reaction of the bicarb with the buttermilk started as soon as they met, and you want to get the bread into the oven while the reaction is still running on "high". DON'T OVERKNEAD. You do not want the traditional "smooth, elastic" ball of dough you would expect with a yeast bread; you simply want one that contains almost everything that went into the bowl, in one mostly cohesive lump. You should not spend more than half a minute or so kneading...the less time, the better. You don't want to develop the gluten in the flour at all. If you do, you'll get a tough loaf. Don't be concerned if the dough is somewhat sticky: flour your hands, and the dough, and keep going as quickly as you can. There is a whole spectrum of "wetness" for soda bread dough in which it's possible to produce perfectly good results: I've found that farl in particular sometimes rises better if the dough is initially wet enough to be actively sticky. You're likely to have to experiment a few times, as I said, to come to recognize the right texture of dough.
Once you're done kneading, shape the bread. For cake, flatten the lump of dough to a slightly domed circle or flat hemisphere about 6-8 inches in diameter, and put it on the baking sheet (which should be dusted lightly with flour first). Then use a very sharp knife to cut a cross right across the circle: the cuts should go about halfway down through the sides of the circle of dough, so that the loaf will "flower" properly. If you're making farl, use the same very sharp knife to cut the circle of dough into four wedges. Try not to crush or compress the dough where you cut it (if the knife is sharp enough, you won't). A clean slicing motion is what's called for.
Then bake. When putting cake in the oven, handle it lightly and don't jar it: the CO2 bubbles are vulnerable at this point of the process. Let the bread alone, and don't peek at it. It should bake for 45 minutes at 400-450F. (One local source suggests you give it the first 10 minutes at 450, then decrease to 400. I would agree with this.)
If making farl, dust the hot griddle or frying pan with a very little flour, and put the farls on/in gently. The cut edges should be 1/2 inch or so apart to allow for expansion. Give the farls 20 minutes on a side: they should be a sort of mocha-toasty color before you turn them. Keep an eye on the heat -- they scorch easily. The heat should be quite "slow". When finished, take the farls off the heat and wrap them in a light dishtowel, hot side down. (The residual steam works its way up through the soda bread and softens the crust formed by the process of baking on the griddle, making it more amenable to being split and toasted later.)
If you're making cake: At the end of 45 minutes, pick up the loaf and tap the bottom. A hollow-ish sound means it's done. For a very crunchy crust, put on a rack to cool. For a softer crust, as above, wrap the cake in a clean dishcloth as soon as it comes out of the oven.