Southern Irish Soda Bread Made with Self-Rising Flour

As free form as it gets — Irish Soda Bread with the guiding hand of self-rising flour.

Irish Soda Bread is a simple rustic bread made with the ingredients in any Irish farmhouse—flour, salt, baking soda, and buttermilk. Leavened not by yeast but by the chemical reaction of basic baking soda with acidic buttermilk, the free form loaves are like dense biscuits with jagged, crisp crusts. The kind of loaves R.B. says reminds him of his family of origin.

Sounds easy, and it is, but baking soda can be tricky in Irish soda bread. For proper leavening action, a correct acid-to-base ratio is critical, and the acidity of your acid ingredient can vary. Without enough acid to neutralize the soda, the bread will develop a jaundiced, yellow hue and will give off a bitter metallic wang that hangs in your nose and throat. Not appetizing at all, that wang.

If you’ve had soda bread with too little acid it’s understandable if you’ve lost interest. Modern soda bread recipes often deal with this issue by calling for regular baking powder with a little soda for a more consistent rise and gentler taste. Also popular are the tasty ingredient safeguards of butter, sugar, dried currants or raisins, and sometimes caraway seeds.

Here are two soda bread recipes that work. Eliminate the uncertainties of baking powder and use self-rising flour, just as we do with biscuits, pancakes, and muffins. Self-rising flour already includes baking powder. Just add a little soda and all the good stuff.

This recipe takes minutes to mix up and it bakes beautifully. Yet another recipe we should make more often, free it from the confinement of that March holiday that insists on linking drinking to the Irish. Ah, the Irish.

Try our simple version of soda bread first. It’s delicious topped with butter and jam, smoked salmon, or egg salad. Serve it with your St. Patrick’s Day Irish boiled dinner.

Our second version (below) spiffed up with butter, egg and currants, is a big bready scone. Butter thin slices and put on the kettle for a cup of P&G Tips.

Southern Irish Soda Bread

minmerrell Southern Irish Soda Bread made easy with self-rising flour. Breads Southern Irish Soda Bread Made with Self-Rising Flour European Print This

Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Ingredients

• SOUTHERN SODA BREAD:
• 2 cups self-rising flour
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups buttermilk
• TO MAKE SWEET SODA BREAD:
• 3 cups self-rising flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ cup butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 ½ cups dried currants
• 1 egg
• 1 ½ cups buttermilk

Instructions

To Make Southern Soda Bread:

Heat the oven to 375° F.
Stir together the flours, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
Add the buttermilk and stir until a soft dough forms. Add a little more buttermilk if the dough seems dry.
With floured hands, gather up the dough and form a nice ball.
Place the dough on a lightly greased baking sheet and pat it into a disk about 2 inches high and 7 inches wide. With a sharp knife slice a big X into the top of the dough.
Bake 45 minutes or until well browned.
Cool. Cut in to thin slices with a serrated knife.

 

To Make Sweet Soda Bread:

Heat the oven to 375° F.
Stir together the flours, sugar, and baking soda in a large mixing bowl.
Cut the butter into the flour mixture using a pastry blender or two knives until crumbly.
Stir in the currants.
Whisk together the egg and buttermilk until well blended. Pour this over the flour mixture and stir together until a soft dough forms.
With floured hands, gather up the dough and form a nice ball.
Place the dough onto a baking sheet pat it into a disk about 2 inches high and 7 inches wide.
With a sharp knife slice a big X into the top of the dough.
Bake 45 minutes or until well browned. Cool. Cut into thin slices with a serrated knife.