Irish Soda Bread – Always A Treat For St. Patrick’s Day

Soda bread is a variety of quick bread traditionally made in a variety of cuisines in which sodium bicarbonate (otherwise known as baking soda) is used as a raising agent rather than the more common yeast. The ingredients of traditional soda bread are flour, bread soda, salt, and buttermilk. The buttermilk in the dough contains lactic acid, which reacts with the baking soda to form tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide. Other ingredients can be added such as raisins, egg or various nuts.

Before the European settlement of the Americas, the Indigenous peoples of the Americas used soda or pearl ash, more commonly known as potash (pot ash) or potassium carbonate, as a leavening agent (the forerunner to baking soda) in quick breads). In modern times in the US, Soda breads as a quick and cheap method of bread making were first publicised by Amelia Simmons in her American Cookery, published in 1796. By 1824, The Virginia Housewife by Mary Randolph was published containing a recipe for Soda Cake.

In Europe, soda breads began to appear in the mid-19th century when bicarbonate of soda first became available for use as a rising agent. Breads, griddle cakes and scones with bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar or tartaric acid became popular in Austria, Polish cuisine (as do Pieczenia-Proziaki) and in the British Isles. Traditional soda bread, eaten in Serbian cuisine, also uses bicarbonate of soda, particularly the traditional ?esnica (Serbian Cyrillic: ???????), a soda bread made at Christmas.

In Ireland, the flour is typically made from soft wheat; so soda bread is best made with a cake or pastry flour (made from soft wheat), which has lower levels of gluten than a bread flour. In some recipes, the buttermilk is replaced by live yoghurt or even stout. Bakers recommend the minimum amount of mixing of the ingredients before baking; the dough should not be kneaded.

Various forms of soda bread are popular throughout Ireland. Soda breads are made using either wholemeal or white flour. In Ulster, the wholemeal variety is usually known as wheaten bread and normally sweetened, while the term “soda bread” is restricted to the white savoury form. In more southern parts of Ireland, the wholemeal variety is usually known as brown soda and is almost identical to the Ulster wheaten (with a very slight difference).

The Soda farl or “Griddle cakes”, “Griddle bread” (or “Soda farls” in Ulster) take a more rounded shape and have a cross cut in the top to allow the bread to expand. The griddle cake or farl is a more flattened type of bread. It is cooked on a griddle allowing it to take a more flat shape and split into four sections. The Soda Farl is one of the distinguishing elements of the Ulster Fry, where it is served alongside potato bread, also in farl form.

Even though it is called “Irish Soda Bread,” this isn’t a traditional bread recipe that involves yeast, multiple risings and lots of kneading.  It’s a pretty easy recipe.

Sometimes it can be a tad bland, so you need to add some punch.  I saw Ina Garten from the Barefoot Contessa add orange zest to her recipe on her show. That really makes a difference.  She doesn’t add caraway seeds to hers, but I do as I like their unique flavor.

You can use currants or raisins in this recipe.

I like to bake my Irish Soda Bread in a 9″ x 9″ brownie pan. It can be baked in a round pie plate as well so it can be cut in its traditional pie wedges. Either way, this is delicious warm out of the oven or toasted the next day. A little butter tastes pretty good on it, too.

Easy Irish Soda Bread

4 cups all-purpose flour

4 T unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. salt

4 T sugar

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 cup currants or raisins mixed with a little flour

1 tsp. finely grated orange rind

1/2 tsp. caraway seeds

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9×9 square pan or pie plate well and place a piece of parchment paper fitted to its base. Grease over the parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, add about half the measured flour. Add the butter pieces and with a pastry knife, mix in the butter until it is incorporated and in tiny pieces. Add the remaining flour, baking soda, salt and sugar and mix well.

Add the buttermilk and egg and with a big spoon, combine well. The dough will be very sticky.

Stir in the currants or raisins, orange rind and caraway seeds. 

Pour the dough into the prepared pan.

Bake for about 45 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for about 10 minutes on a baking rack.  Serve warm or toasted with butter or jam if desired.

Bread Making with Bill & Sheila
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