Irish Soda Bread Floats On Angels’ Wings

by Carol Penn-Romine

Okay, so Irish soda bread does NOT float on angels’ wings, but for many of you who have eaten unfortunate representations of soda bread and assume it’s all the same, I figured you’d have to take a look at this piece to see if I’d really lost my mind. And for those of you who only know soda bread by all the jokes made about it (as in using it to prop up the car so you can change a tire), you’d just have to take a peek out of curiosity, right?

Horror stories about Irish soda bread are almost as plentiful as those about fruitcake, an unfair thing to do to a lovely but misunderstood bread. Essentially, soda bread is a type of quick bread that appeared in Ireland after the introduction of baking soda in the 19th century. This chemical agent enabled housewives to get a loaf of hot bread mixed, baked and onto the table in less than an hour, making it Ireland’s culinary guest of honor. The problem with making soda bread, though, is that if you don’t know a certain trick, it will come out heavy, dense and unappealing. Once you know the secret, however, you can produce a loaf that is light, fluffy and delectable every time.

The secret is this: Once you’ve added the buttermilk to the dry ingredients (including that all-important baking soda), you must get the dough into the hot oven as quickly as possible. If you dawdle, the buttermilk and baking soda gang up on the other ingredients, and the whole thing gets quarrelsome and toughens up. This means you must have everything ready up front, and, most importantly, the oven must be preheated to the correct temperature before the loaf goes into it. So get organized and work quickly, and the resulting soda bread will be light and airy, not leaden and scary!

Irish Soda Bread

Yield: 1 loaf

3¼ cups whole wheat flour

1¼ cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons salt

1½ teaspoons baking soda

a scant ½ cup of oats (the real stuff, not those little packets of instant breakfast goo)

about 2½ cups buttermilk

Before you touch the ingredients, do the following three things first:

1. Preheat your oven to 425°F and position the rack in the middle.

2. Butter a sheet pan and set it aside.

3. Lightly dust a cutting board or other smooth, clean work surface with a bit of flour and set it aside.

Now you can get down to business . . . Sift the two flours, salt and baking soda into a large bowl, mix them well, and then stir in the oats. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, pour in the buttermilk and stir to combine (add a tablespoon or two more buttermilk if it’s too dry or a bit more flour if it’s too wet). As quickly as possible, turn the mixture out onto a lightly-floured work surface and pat it into a round of about 8 or 9 inches in diameter—this isn’t yeast bread, so don’t bother kneading it; just be sure it’s all combined. Take a sharp knife and cut an X deeply into the dough all the way across in each direction, cutting the dough almost completely into quarters. (Depending on which bit of folklore you believe, cutting the X in the dough lets out either the fairies or the evil spirits. If you see either, please e-mail me!)

Place the round of dough on the buttered sheet pan and bake it in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 350°F and bake for an additional 20 to 25 minutes, until the bread is golden brown and sounds hollow when you rap the bottom of the loaf with your knuckles. Move it to a rack immediately and let it cool there, so moisture doesn’t condense on the bottom.

This bread is fantastic with a bowl of hearty soup, a glass of Guinness and a good semi-firm cheese, or with a simple smear of butter (not the ugly M-word!) or jam.

Enjoy!

© 2006, The Hungry Passport