With St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner, we thought it was the perfect time to share one of our most popular recipes, Irish Soda Bread.
When you think of traditional soda bread, you may think of a round loaf of bread with raisins scattered throughout the middle.
Although this type of bread is very popular in the United States, this is not true Irish Soda Bread. Just like Corned Beef and Cabbage, the soda bread made with egg, butter and raisins. stems from an American take on Ireland inspired recipes.
In fact, traditional Irish soda bread originated out of necessity. And it only contains 5 simple ingredients that was easy to obtain back in the 1700’s in Ireland.
And you might be surprised that yeast is not one of the ingredients! Because of the climate in Ireland, it is difficult to make yeast-leavened bread.
Therefore, they use baking soda to make their every-day table bread.
Because there is no yeast to activate, and this is a no kneading required, the bread takes only 5 minutes to prepare!
And with less than an hour to complete, from start to finish, it is no wonder why it is the ‘go to’ bread in Ireland.
How to Make Irish Soda Bread
So how do you make Traditional Irish Soda Bread?
First sift your dry ingredients in a large bowl. Then make a well in the center and slowly pour in 1 1/2 – 1 3/4 cups of the buttermilk. Be sure not to use all of the buttermilk, as you may need a little more later.
Now, using your fingers, bring the outer edges of the flour in towards the buttermilk. Keep working the two together, until a soft dough ball begins to form.
If the mixture is too dry, then add the remaining buttermilk. You want the dough ball to be soft, but not too wet and sticky.
Form your dough
Then bring the Irish Soda Bread dough out of the bowl. Continue to mix it together until it is able to be formed into a consistent ball. *Do not knead the dough. Simply bring the mixture together to form a ball.
Next, pat the dough down until it reaches a circle that is 2 1/2 inches thick. Place it on a baking sheet and using a serrated knife, cut a cross in the top of the dough.
Bake in a preheated oven at 450 degrees F for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 400 and continue to bake until done, approximately 30 more minutes.
Let the bread cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring it to a cooling rack.
Then when you are ready, slice and serve along with Beef Stew or with your favorite jam or jelly!
Enjoy!
Mary and Jim
Jim and Mary Competti have been writing gardening, DIY and recipe articles and books for over 15 years from their 46 acre Ohio farm. The two are frequent speakers on all things gardening and love to travel in their spare time.
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Irish Soda Bread Recipe
3½ cups all-purpose flour (plus extra for dusting)
1 tsp granulated sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1½-2 cups buttermilk
Preheat the oven to 450°F
Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in most of the buttermilk, leaving about ¼ cup to use as needed. Using your fingers, bring the flour and liquid together, adding more buttermilk, if necessary. ***Don’t knead the mixture, or it will become heavy. The dough should be soft, but not too wet or sticky.
When the dough begins to stick together and form a ball, remove it from the bowl and place it onto a floured work surface. Continue to bring it together a little more until it is able to be formed into a ball. Pat the dough down into a circle, about 2½ inches thick and cut a deep cross in it. Place on a baking sheet.
Bake for 15 minutes. Turn down the heat to 400° for an additional 30 minutes. When done, the loaf will sound slightly hollow when tapped on the bottom and be golden in color.
Allow to cool on a wire rack until you are ready to eat.
***Hint Buttermilk replacement suggestion — To make your own buttermilk, add 1 1/2 tablespoons of lemon juice to the milk. Let sit for 10 minutes. Then stir and mix into the recipe as instructed.
Irish Soda Bread is the easiest bread you'll make – no proofing or kneading required and the dough comes together in 5 minutes. Soda bread has a soft and tender crumb with a Biscuit-like texture.
No-Knead bread is justifiably popular due to its ease and good results. In side-by-side tests, we discovered that 90 seconds of extra work, plus a few tweaks to the ingredients, takes no-knead bread from good to great.
Butter contains fats that retain gases during baking, ensuring the dough rises properly in the oven and softening the crust. If you forget to brush the dough before you bake, you can still apply it as soon as you take it out. The butter will minimize the amount of crisping a loaf will do as it cools.
Use a sharp knife to score the top of the dough into an "X" shape about an inch deep. This is to help heat get into the dough as it bakes. Transfer the skillet to the preheated oven and bake for 35 to 45 minutes. To check if the bread is done, when you tap the bottom of the bread it should sound hollow.
And finally, don't immediately cut into the Fast Irish Soda bread when you pull it out of the oven. Although this bread is best served warm, cutting into it too quickly will turn the bread gummy.
You spent too much time kneading the dough. Baking soda starts to react and release its gas as soon as it comes into contact with the sour milk. Take too long and the gas will escape before the bread is baked. Kneading will also cause chewy gluten to form.
Dough that has not been kneaded, or hasn't been kneaded long enough, appears lumpy, doesn't stretch very well, and tears easily. If your dough is like this, it needs more kneading. Keep kneading it until it's smooth, stretchy, and more pliable.
It's easy to see the appeal of the “no-knead” approach in bread baking: minimal effort produces maximum flavor. By simply mixing up your dough and giving it an extended rising period, you can enjoy gorgeous, golden loaves without having kneaded a thing.
Instant milk powder makes bread dough super soft and fluffy and also helps to give it a good rise. It also contributes to the dough staying nice and soft after baking for a little longer than a recipe that does not use milk powder.
“AP flour can be used in the making of rich or enriched breads such as soft rolls, or brioche,” says Chef Stephen, which are meant to be softer in nature, rather than crusty.
Hydrocolloids can retain moisture in the bread. This is important because moisture plays a crucial role in the freshness and softness of bread. By holding onto water, hydrocolloids help prevent the bread from drying out too quickly, thus maintaining its moistness for longer.
It's important to remember no to overmix your ingredients. Irish Soda Bread is a dense bread, similar to a scone, but can easily become dry if overmixed. Quickly add the wet ingredients to a well you've made in the dry ingredients, and mix with your hands or a dough hook until it just comes together.
Irish brown bread has a deep, nutty flavor because of its wheat flour and wheat bran while soda bread uses only white flour. Soda bread is slightly sweet and more scone-like while Irish brown bread is more savory with a tender interior.
Note that the dough will be a little sticky, and quite shaggy (a little like a shortcake biscuit dough). You want to work it just enough so the flour is just moistened and the dough just barely comes together. Shaggy is good. If you over-work the dough the bread will end up tough.
Because soda bread is not yeasted bread, kneading it just makes it dense and hard. To develop its trademark soft crumb, you touch the dough as little as possible while shaping it. If you prefer a chewier kneaded bread texture but don't want to put in all that work, try our easy No-Knead Bread recipe.
What's the texture like? The best Irish soda bread, like this recipe, has a golden brown crust with a dense, tight crumb. The bread isn't heavy, it's actually quite tender and soft inside.
Chances are good that the bread you ate suffered from one of three common problems: improper amount of baking soda (a gross, salty-bitter taste), over cooking (a dry, chalky texture), or undercooking (a soggy, doughy center).
Introduction: My name is Dan Stracke, I am a homely, gleaming, glamorous, inquisitive, homely, gorgeous, light person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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