Irish Soda Bread: Experiments With the Recipe

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

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.

Experiment #1

Summary: halved the recipe and added 1 duck egg and 1/4 cup less liquid. Baked in my smaller bread pans.

Egg salad on Irish soda bread and kimchi slaw with raisins.

Recipe

• 2 cups flour (50/50 whole wheat and white)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 duck egg
• 3/4 cup kefir

Mix until dough is workable but sticky. Pat into medium size bread pan and bake at 375°F (190°C) for 30 minutes. Cool in baking pan with damp towel over top.

Experiment #2

Summary: Went for a larger loaf using the original amounts of flour. Replaced 1/2 cup of liquid in original recipe with 2 duck eggs. Substituted part of the flour with oatmeal flour because it seems to be added to a lot of modern Irish soda bread recipes.

Recipe

• 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

Mix dough until kneadable but sticky. Shape and put in large bread pan. Bake at 375°F (190°C) for 1 hour. Leave in pan and cover with damp kitchen towel to cool. 

Experiment #3

Summary: Similar to experiment #2, but I added butter. I didn't have duck eggs so I used chicken eggs. I also didn't have much kefir so I used whey for the full 1.25 cups liquid.

Recipe

• 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

Mix all ingredients until dough is sticky but workable. Pat into medium size bread pan and bake at 375°F (190°C) for 30 minutes. Cool in baking pan covered with a damp towel.

What did we think?

• 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.

So, I'm calling this a very successful experiment. The best part is having a loaf bread recipe that can be made fairly quickly and with simple ingredients. If I ever run out of yeast, we can still have our toast and sandwiches. 

Irish Soda Bread: Experiments With the Recipe 

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