recipes@decwrl.UUCP (09/18/87)
SODA-BREAD(B) USENET Cookbook SODA-BREAD(B)
IRISH SODA BREAD
SODA-BREAD - Two white soda loaves
This is a basic soda bread, following the Irish mode. I
scaled up the recipe from one of Beard's, and changed it
some. It is quite crusty, and really all-purpose. This
soda bread takes around a third the time and a half the
effort of a comparable yeast bread. Since no yeast bread is
much like it, I don't know what would be comparable. People
who have never tried a soda bread will note many differ-
ences, like the order you add things (flour and then the
liquid...).
INGREDIENTS (2 loaves)
8 cups white flour (unbleached)
3-4 cups buttermilk, at room temperature
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1.5 tsp baking soda
1 cup currants (optional)
1 tsp butter or oil
PROCEDURE
(1) Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking
soda, and salt.
(2) Preheat the oven to 350 deg. F.
(3) Stir in buttermilk, a cup at a time. You should
make a fairly soft dough that will nonetheless
hold its shape. Thus, you may need the full
amount of buttermilk.
(4) Turn the dough out onto a well-floured board (this
is a stock phrase; do it anyway). Knead until it
is smooth and soft, probably about 7 minutes. You
should have to keep adding a little flour to the
board for the first few minutes to keep the dough
from sticking.
(5) Are you using currants? Knead them in, then. Or
don't, accordingly.
(6) Tear the dough in half. Form each half into a
ball. With a knife, slash a cross in the top.
(7) Place the balls, cross up, well apart, on a
greased baking sheet.
(8) Put this sheet, bread side up, into the oven.
(9) Bake for 35 or 40 minutes. The loaves are done
when they sound hollow at a knocking hand. They
should also get to be a nice light brown color.
The cross will split open, and the resultant
points will get hard and dark brown. Soda bread
has a tendency to crack in the oven. This is no
big deal.
NOTES
You can substitute, per James Beard's recommendation, about
4 cups of whole-wheat flour for half the white. Since this
will be heavier, use about 40% more baking powder. The bread
made this way is markedly different.
RATING
Difficulty: easy to moderate. Time: 30 minutes building, 45
minutes baking. Precision: Measure the ingredients.
CONTRIBUTOR
David Hendler
Aiken Computation Lab (Harvard Univ.)
hendler@harvard.harvard.edu