Irish Soda Bread is a quick and easy bread recipe that is perfect for St. Patrick's Day. This bread is made with flour, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk, and is traditionally baked in a round loaf.
You will need somewhere between these two amounts of buttermilk,depending on how much liquid your flour tends to absorb.
Try to avoidusing regular milk: if you must, use baking powder instead of bicarbonateof soda.
Lightly grease a heavy skillet (if making soda farl, theflat version of soda bread) or preheat the oven to 450 F (if making sodacake, the round, more breadlike version.
) Sift the dry ingredientstogether into a large bowl; make sure the soda is evenly distributed.
Makea well in the center of the dry mixture and add about half the buttermilk.
Stir until you have a raggy dough that is very squashy but which looksmore or less dry.
Add more liquid sparingly until you achieve thistexture.
Blend until all the flour has achieved this consistency; thenturn out immediately onto a lightly floured board and knead for no morethan a minute or a minute and a half.
Overkneading makes this breadvery tough, and it's very easy to overdo it.
If making soda cake, shapethe dough into a circle about 8-9 inches across and about an inch and ahalf thick.
Cut a cross about on the top, about half an inch deep, andplace on a floured baking sheet.
Bake at 450 F for 45-50 minutes.
Ifmaking soda farl, shape the dough into a circle about 9 inches by one inchthick and cut into four wedges or farls: place in the preheated skillet,with cut edges about half an inch apart.
Cook slowly on the stovetop overlow-to-medium heat: it should take about 20 minutes for the farls to puffup and turn a light brown on the pan side.
Turn them and cook for another20 minutes.
For a softer crust on either soda cake or soda farl, wrapin a dishtowel after baking.
For more information on making sodabreadand its variations, please see the file SODABRED.
TXT included with thiszipfile.
Ingredients
Directions
You will need somewhere between these two amounts of buttermilk,depending on how much liquid your flour tends to absorb.
Try to avoidusing regular milk: if you must, use baking powder instead of bicarbonateof soda.
Lightly grease a heavy skillet (if making soda farl, theflat version of soda bread) or preheat the oven to 450 F (if making sodacake, the round, more breadlike version.
) Sift the dry ingredientstogether into a large bowl; make sure the soda is evenly distributed.
Makea well in the center of the dry mixture and add about half the buttermilk.
Stir until you have a raggy dough that is very squashy but which looksmore or less dry.
Add more liquid sparingly until you achieve thistexture.
Blend until all the flour has achieved this consistency; thenturn out immediately onto a lightly floured board and knead for no morethan a minute or a minute and a half.
Overkneading makes this breadvery tough, and it's very easy to overdo it.
If making soda cake, shapethe dough into a circle about 8-9 inches across and about an inch and ahalf thick.
Cut a cross about on the top, about half an inch deep, andplace on a floured baking sheet.
Bake at 450 F for 45-50 minutes.
Ifmaking soda farl, shape the dough into a circle about 9 inches by one inchthick and cut into four wedges or farls: place in the preheated skillet,with cut edges about half an inch apart.
Cook slowly on the stovetop overlow-to-medium heat: it should take about 20 minutes for the farls to puffup and turn a light brown on the pan side.
Turn them and cook for another20 minutes.
For a softer crust on either soda cake or soda farl, wrapin a dishtowel after baking.
For more information on making sodabreadand its variations, please see the file SODABRED.
TXT included with thiszipfile.
