I had some milk turning sour so I made this. I’ve made it before; it’s so easy and we really like it. It is NOT pretty; I’m sure some people’s Irish soda bread is but mine just doesn’t wind up that way.
Ingredients
- Irish soda bread
- 4 c Plain flour
- 1 t salt
- 1 t baking sodashopping list
- 1 t sugar
- 2 c buttermilk or sour milk
How to make it
- Sieve dry ingredients into a large bowl. Scoop up
- handfuls and allow to drop back into the bowl to
- aerate the mixture. Add enough buttermilk to make a
- soft dough. Now work quickly as the buttermilk and
- soda are already reacting. Knead the dough lightly –
- too much handling will toughen it, while too little
- means it won’t rise properly. Form a round loaf about
- as thick as your fist. Place it on a lightly floured
- baking sheet and cut a cross in the top with a floured
- knife. Put at once to bake near the top of a
- pre-heated oven, gas mark 8, 450 degrees F, for 30-45
- minutes. When baked, the loaf will sound hollow when
- rapped on the bottom with your knuckles. Wrap
- immediately in a clean tea-towl to stop the crust
- hardening too much. **Note: Wheaten bread or Brown
- soda is made in exactly the same way but with
- wholemeal flour replacing all or some of the white
- flour; this mixture will probably require less
- buttermilk. Another aviation is to add 1/2 cup of
- sultanas to the white bread – this loaf is known as
- Spotted Dick. Source: The Little Irish Cookbook by
- John Murray.