Irish soda bread
Posted on | March 8, 2010 | 1 Comment
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This is an authentically Irish version of soda bread. There are a few twists here, but they’re more for conforming American ingredients than for altering taste or texture.
Soda bread’s texture and loft depends on the interaction of buttermilk and baking soda and on the strength (percentage of glutens) of the flour. Irish buttermilk is both richer and tangier, while Irish flour runs softer than American. Consequently, traditional Irish recipes come out too dense and tough. The recent trend in modern American “Irish” soda bread recipes is to cut butter into the flour in order to lighten the texture – but the result is a little too much like a scone or biscuit for my taste.
This recipe deviates from American and Irish standards by replacing some of the AP flour with cake flour to take down the protein content, mixing sour cream with the buttermilk to enrich it; adding cream of tartar to enhance the acidity and fully utilize the baking powder, and using a typically Irish amount of baking powder. The result, as I said earlier, is a soda bread which is more typically Irish.
Note 1: There are three alternatives offered in the Ingredient section. The purpose of each alternative is explained there.
Note 2: This bread may be baked in the oven as loaves or on the griddle (or in a skillet) as farls. Farls are (a) very Irish; and (b) rock. Do try them.
IRISH SODA BREAD
Quantity: 2 round loaves, or 8 farls
Difficulty: Not at all.
Ingredients:
• 2 cups AP flour
• 1 cup cake flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp (table) salt
• 2 tsp cream of tartar
• 2 tsp baking soda:
• 1-1/3 cup buttermilk
• 2/3 cup sour cream
• Alternative 1: Omit the cake flour, substituting 1 cup of AP flour for it. This will result in a chewier crumb.
• Alternative 2: Omit the whole wheat flour, substituting 1 cup of AP flour for it. This will result in a lighter bread with a more delicate flavor.
• Alternative 3: Omit both cake and wheat flours, and use 4 cups total AP flour. Makes it easy.
Technique:
Put the sour cream in a bowl. Shake the buttermilk well before measuring it. Use a dinner fork to whisk the buttermilk into the sour cream a little at a time in order to make a smooth mixture. Set it aside for a moment.
Rinse and dry the fork.
Measure the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Use the fork to thoroughly mix.
Use the famous fork to swirl the dry ingredients to the sides of the bowl, making a well in the center.
Pour the buttermilk mixture into the well. Mix lightly with the fork just until the flour holds together. Work the flour quickly and gently with care taken not to over-mix.
Turn the contents out onto a floured board and knead with a light hand, exactly four times. If all of the flour is not incorporated – fine. Let it be that way.
Form the dough into a rough ball, and cut it in half. Form each half into rough balls.
Clean your board, and dust it again.
Loaf Method:
Preheat the oven to 375F.
Pat a ball into a flat, level disk, about 7" in diameter. Transfer it to greased 8" or 9" pie plate. Use a knife to score a cross – from edge to edge – on top of the disk.
Repeat with the second ball.
Place the pans in the oven – as near the center as you can get them. Close the door and reduce the oven heat to 350F. Bake for about 35 minutes, until brown. Test for doneness with the thump test (should sound hollow) and/or the toothpick test (should come out clean).
Farl Method:
Preheat a griddle or very heavy skillet to medium-low. Grease it well.
Pat a ball into a flat, level disk, about 7" in diameter. Cut it into four roughly equal triangles. Repeat with the second ball.
Crumple up a paper towels, grab it with tongs, and wipe any excess grease from the griddle.
Place the farls on the griddle and bake for about ten minutes, until nicely browned. Turn and bake the other side. Be careful not to let the farls get too dark. As long as the griddle is not too hot, their color will tell you far more than the clock can.
The Irish soda bread by Cook Food Good, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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WHO IS BDL, Boar D. Laze, or whatever the hell his name is?
A Brief Biography:
Ex-Navy Seal; Ex-Victoria’s Secret model; Turned down a three-way with Sophia Loren and the young Marlene Dietrich (as in the Blue Angel) because had other plans; Knows who killed everyone in The Big Sleep, and why; Chaired the work-group which invented Time, Space, Gravity, Fire and Holiday Sweaters; Prefers Dickel to Jack.
What is Cook Food Good?
What’s this site about? It’s about a lot of thingsForcing myself to work out issues relating to writing a cookbook: COOK FOOD GOOD: American Cooking and Technique for Beginners and Intermediates.
Getting feedback on my work from you.
Discussions on basic and not-so-basic techniques. The recipes here are very technique driven. Similarly, the idea behind the book is to be far more about the how than the what – with the goal of teaching you to create your own recipes and tweak other people’s, confidently and successfully.
How to cook better, as it relates to you (and me too). That is, taking a beginner or advanced beginner to good, restaurant quality. Mostly this will be (more or less) French technique and (more or less) American food. But only mostly, more or less.
Recipes for this, that and the other.
Knives and all about sharpening them (which have somehow become a subject on which I frequently get asked for advice): How to choose and how to use.
The first Cook Food Good Blog was hosted by the website, Chef Talk. However, CT, removed its blog section. If you’re interested in bad writing, poor punctuation and ancient history, you’ll find the old CT posts archived here. One thing about posting on CT, was that it acted as a sort of language and attitude super-ego. Don’t count on it here. This is naked id.
July 13th, 2010 @ 5:15 am
Soda bread is one of the easiest things in the world to make and there is not really any set in stone recipe, you adjust it to the way you like it. After a cople of sclies of this you shouldn’t be able to move!