Irish Soda Bread

flour, buttermilk, bicarbonate of soda and salt, worked for under a minute and cut with a deep cross before it goes into a hot oven

Origin: Dublin & Ireland

From the journey of Wheat.

Irish soda bread has four ingredients and its existence is a direct consequence of Irish wheat. The soft wheat that grows in a wet maritime climate is low in the proteins that form gluten, which makes it poor for the long yeast fermentations that a strong wheat rewards. When bicarbonate of soda became cheaply available in the 1830s, Irish kitchens had a raising agent that worked instantly, needed no proving, and suited exactly the flour they had. Combined with buttermilk, which every dairying household produced as a by-product of churning butter, it gave a bread that could be made from scratch in an hour on a griddle over a turf fire. The chemistry is the recipe. Bicarbonate of soda is alkaline and needs an acid to react with; buttermilk supplies it, and the carbon dioxide released begins immediately and is largely spent within about fifteen minutes. Everything therefore has to happen fast: the oven is heated first, the dough is brought together in under a minute, and it goes straight in. A soda dough left to stand is a flat loaf. The cross cut deep into the top is usually explained as letting the fairies out or blessing the bread. It also, and more usefully, lets heat into the centre of a dense round loaf and allows it to expand without tearing at the sides. Both explanations are given in Ireland and the second is the one that shows on the loaf. Ireland distinguishes several forms. Plain white soda bread is the everyday one; brown bread made with wholemeal is the darker, nuttier version served with smoked salmon and chowder; and soda farls are quarters cooked on a griddle and are part of an Ulster fry. Raisins, caraway, and sugar make a spotted dog, which is a sweet tea bread and is not what accompanies a stew.

Ingredients

Dough

  • 450 g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 400 ml buttermilk, cold

To finish

  • 1 tbsp plain flour, for the top

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 220°C and put a baking tray in to get hot. Do this before you touch the flour.
  2. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, and salt into a wide bowl and mix them thoroughly, lifting the flour to aerate it.
  3. Sift properly. Bicarbonate of soda that stays in a lump gives a bitter yellow patch in the finished loaf and there is nothing to be done about it afterwards.
  4. Make a well in the middle and pour in almost all the buttermilk at once.
  5. Bring it together with a wide-fingered hand or a knife, using a cutting rather than a kneading motion, adding the last of the buttermilk if there is dry flour left.
  6. Work it for no more than thirty seconds. The dough should be soft, slightly sticky, and shaggy, and it will look under-mixed, which is correct.
  7. The reaction starts the moment the buttermilk meets the soda and is largely finished within a quarter of an hour, so speed matters more than tidiness.
  8. Tip it onto a floured surface, turn it over twice to shape a round about 5cm high, and put it straight onto the hot tray.
  9. Cut a cross right across the top, going about two thirds of the way down through the loaf rather than merely scoring the surface.
  10. Dust the top with flour and bake for fifteen minutes at 220°C, then lower the oven to 200°C for a further twenty-five to thirty minutes.
  11. It is done when the base sounds hollow tapped with a knuckle.
  12. Cool on a rack under a clean cloth, which keeps the crust from going hard, and eat it the same day.

Notes

Heat the oven first, work the dough for under a minute, and get it into the oven immediately. Do not knead it; soda bread has no gluten development to gain and overworking gives a tough, close crumb. Cut the cross deep. Real buttermilk is best, and milk soured with a tablespoon of lemon juice per 250ml is a working substitute. It stales fast, which is why Irish households made it daily; day-old soda bread toasts well and is the correct base for a plate of smoked salmon.

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