Irish soda bread

Tags

Bread, Irish, soup

Fresh from the oven

Easiest bread ever! And pretty darn tasty too, though I was probably more partial to the crust than the inside, which is pretty unusual for me. The second recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie this month and it’s a keeper.

This is a bread that has just four ingredients, which were apparently ingredients that every household in Ireland would have on hand – flour (cake flour, in my case, all purpose for the Americans), bicarbonate of soda, salt and buttermilk. All that is required of one to make this bread is to mix all the ingredients together, need a little bit, shape into a disk, slash an X across the top and wait, while it bakes. Then wait, patiently if you have it in you, while it cools, before you cut a great, thick slice of it, ready for spreading or dunking.

We ate ours with a store-bought soup (lazy Sunday lunch) and it was perfect for the meal – you could dunk it in the soup and because of its moist, tight texture it doesn’t leave crumbs in the soup! I kept nibbling away at the crust all afternoon; I just couldn’t resist it – crunchy, salty and just a little sweet. The fiancé apparently had a slice slathered with syrup; he reports it to have been delicious.

A versatile little bread recipe, which I think possibly lends itself to variation. Dorie suggests adding a cup of raisins, currents or diced dried fruit to the mixture for a non-traditional version. I was thinking more like a grated, flavoursome, mature cheddar, and the fiancé suggested cheese and bacon. For me the smell emanating from the oven was reminiscent of baking scones – I think these are known as baking powder biscuits in the States? For us it is the British classic of cream scones with strawberry jam. I think this is why I feel like cheese would be a good addition, cheese scones are a favourite!

I know the recipe by heart and will be whipping up this bread often from now on.