You can quickly whip up a loaf of Irish Soda Bread as part of your St. Patrick’s Day festivities. Soda bread is a quick bread. Simply stated, a quick bread is any bread that is made without yeast. Irish Soda Bread was created out of necessity. It is made with the most basic ingredients: flour, baking soda, soured milk, and salt.
The recipe below contains the same basic concepts, but with some modern touches.
Ingredients
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoons ice-cold butter, cut into small cubes
1 1/3 cups whole milk
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup currants (optional – you can use your favourite dried fruit)
1/4 cup caraway seeds (optional – you can substitute flax seed, chia seed, or hemp seed)
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Add the apple cider vinegar to the milk. This will curdle the milk to create “buttermilk”. You can also just use 1-2/3 cups of buttermilk instead.
3. Mix together flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder, then with 2 forks, or a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the consistency resembles coarse meal.
4. Add in dried fruit and seeds.
5. Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until it starts to come together.
6. Roll out on to a lightly floured surface and form into a domed disc, about 7″ in diameter, cup an “X” across the top, and lightly dust with flour.
7. Bake for 70 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through.
Serve warm, with butter!
If you are looking to try baking bread, this is a great recipe to begin with. It’s simple, and there’s no yeast involved, so you don’t have to worry about killing the yeast.
What are some of your favourite Irish Soda Bread add-ins?
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