Last St. Patrick' Day, I made Irish Brown Bread, a type of Irish Soda Bread. I had never made it before and found it easy, quick, and quite good. It was crumbly in texture, but the flavor was nice. Nice enough to experiment with.
The Irish Soda Bread recipe that I used for my St. Pat's dinner was the simplest and most traditional recipe I could find. This is because one of my study projects this year is trying to find recipes that are as historically authentic as possible. Part of my objective is to find simple techniques and ways to combine and cook the foods we have available to us. The next step is to see how I can adapt them.
Basic Irish Soda Bread Recipe
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| Photo from St. Patrick's Day Dinner |
- 4 cups flour (mix of wheat and white as desired, I used 50/50)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1¾ cups buttermilk (I used kefir)
Mix until ingredients are combined (over kneading will toughen the dough). Shape into a round, score a cross on top, and bake at 375°F (190°C) for 35-40 minutes. For a soft crust, wrap the hot bread in a tea towel while it cools.
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| Egg salad on Irish soda bread and kimchi slaw with raisins. |
- 2 cups flour (50/50 whole wheat and white)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 duck egg
- 3/4 cup kefir
- 3.5 cups flour (50/50 whole wheat & white)
- 1/2 C oatmeal flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1.5 tsp salt
- 2 duck eggs
- 1 cup kefir
- 1/4 cup milk
- 3.5 cups flour (50/50 whole wheat & white)
- 1/2 C oatmeal flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1.5 tsp salt
- 2 (chicken) eggs
- 1/4 cup softened butter
- 1.25 cups whey
- All were good and we'd eat any of them again.
- The soda bread texture is different from whole wheat yeast bread but they all sliced nicely.
- My preferred recipe is #3 because the flavor was the best. I'm sure this is because of the butter, which will also likely help keep the loaf from drying out as quickly.
