Much like the soda bread I first tried in county Tipperary in Ireland my great grandmother's recipe tastes authentic enough to me.
Chef's notes
My mother talks about her grand mother's soda bread but she never made it for me when I was growing up. My great grand mother was long gone before I came along and it took visiting Ireland to taste this simple peasant bread before I knew it's allure. Thankfully mom kept the recipe so now we can all give it a try. "Slainte"
Steps
1
Sifting the dry ingrediants
Ingredients
4 cups flour
1 tbsp baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Sift all the dry ingredients into a large bowl.
2
Cut in the Butter
Ingredients
1/3 cup butter
Using a pastry cutter cut the butter into the dry ingredients till it resembles a coarse meal.
3
Add the milk and shape
Ingredients
1 cup of milk
Mix the dough till combined but don't over mix as you don't want to create too much gluten.
Once it's come together turn out the dough on a floured counter top and shape into a ball. using a bench scraper cut the ball into two pieces and shape each one into a ball. I will take the ball and fold it in half, turn it 45 degrees and do this about 4 times. Again if you over work the dough you'll create gluten and the bread will be tough. I tuck the edge under the bottom to make a perfect round.
4
Cut the top
Ingredients
corn meal
Before you place the balls onto a parchment lined or lightly greased baking sheet. Lightly spread some corn meal around.
With a sharp knife cut an X into the top of each loaf.
Place in oven for 30 - 35 minutes or till when you tap the bottom of the loaf it sounds hollow.
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My mother is from Tipperary too, she was born in Clonmel. Congratulations on NOT using any baking powder! I'll try your recipe tomorrow and let you know how I like it.
I know the town well. Till they put in a Tesco in Tipp we always went to the big city of Clonmel to shop. A great little town. I hope the bread turns out for you. I found my oven was not as hot as I thought it was so it was a bit doughy the first time. The second time I nailed it. We love eating this warm with butter and it usually doesn't make it to dinner time around our house. Enjoy.
The recipe just said "milk" but back in the day it no doubt was buttermilk. I'll bet it would be a fabulous addition as I use buttermilk in pancakes and it gives a real zing to the flavor. I haven't tried it myself but it sounds good. This is a really basic recipe that you can jazz up with raisins or herbs like any bread recipe so why not use buttermilk. Thanks for a great idea.
This was a very easy and tasty recipe. I had to use a few more tablespoons of butter though in order to get the coarse meal. I was concerned about the ratio of dry/wet ingredients as well but in the end it turned out great in spite of the fact that I had to use soy milk. Also I did not use cornmeal as I didn't have any but I had no problem with it sticking on the parchment paper. This is a very hearty bread and I think adding raisins as suggested would be great.
I'm happy you enjoyed this as I'm sure my great grandmother would have been pleased also, though I doubt there was much soy milk in Ireland in the early 1900's. I'm curious to try that and see how it effects the final taste. I'm glad you had success and it turned out great.
Steve E •I know the town well. Till they put in a Tesco in Tipp we always went to the big city of Clonmel to shop. A great little town. I hope the bread turns out for you. I found my oven was not as hot as I thought it was so it was a bit doughy the first time. The second time I nailed it. We love eating this warm with butter and it usually doesn't make it to dinner time around our house. Enjoy.
Liz S •This was a very easy and tasty recipe. I had to use a few more tablespoons of butter though in order to get the coarse meal. I was concerned about the ratio of dry/wet ingredients as well but in the end it turned out great in spite of the fact that I had to use soy milk. Also I did not use cornmeal as I didn't have any but I had no problem with it sticking on the parchment paper. This is a very hearty bread and I think adding raisins as suggested would be great.