Look Who it Was Random video

Irish Soda Bread Recipe, How to Make Irish Soda, Soda Bread Recipe, Recipe for Irish Soda Bread

1,731 views · Published 22 February 2010 · 9:29 · Indexed 4 October 2026

Channel: Jan Charles · 2010 · Howto & Style

Watch on YouTube

http://www.ThrillbillyGourmet.com  Irish Soda Bread Recipe, Irish Food, Irish Recipes, Soda Bread Recipe, Recipe for Irish Soda Bread  How to make fabulous Irish Soda Bread
I'm going to show you one of the easiest, quickest, most delicious breads that you've ever had in your life.  This is Irish soda bread.  Now true Irish soda bread, when I was doing some research on it, didn't have the sugar in it, and didn't have some of the extra ingredients.  So it would've had baking soda, only without the baking powder.  It wouldn't have had the egg, it pretty much would've been the flour, the buttermilk, and the baking soda.
Now in here all I have is three cups of all purpose flour, and one cup of whole wheat flour.   To that I'm going to add the soda, baking soda, and it's one teaspoon, one tablespoon of baking powder, and that seems backwards to me, but, that's correct.  I'm just going to let my mixer start stirring those together for me.   We want everything nicely incorporated.  Five tablespoons of white sugar, that's also not the truly traditional version, that's my version.  And a pinch of salt, that might be half a teaspoon.
I have a stick of butter, and I am going to drop the butter in there. Let me turn it off so I don't end up wearing it, wait a minute.   I'm going to drop the butter in here and then, over here on my baking sheet, take the paper, and that way, I don't get my hand all goofy.
This is kind of like a biscuit, it's kind of like pie dough, and actually the texture that you're looking for is something like a scone or shortbread.  More like a biscuit than a traditional bread, it's really hard to describe.  The first loaf I made, it was really, really ugly, and nobody cared. We ate it standing at the kitchen counter, right out of the oven, it was fabulous. All right, that's all you're doing. Just to get it nicely incorporated into the flour.
Now at this point, one egg, goes into one cup of buttermilk.  Now like a biscuit, you don't want to mess with the dough any more than you have to.  The more you mess with it, the tougher the final product will be.  You want it nice and tender and light.  So we're only going to do this for just a minute.  We're going to bring the rest of it together with our hands.
There goes our egg.  I don't want to mix it with the mixer long enough to bring it off the sides on its own. I'll let it go a minute more, then I'm going to do the rest of it with my hands. 
Now most of that has incorporated. A lot of the instructions I read said to turn it out onto a floured surface and knead the dough.  Honestly, I think what you're going to have at that point is you're going to overwork the dough, and you're also going to incorporate more flour than you need to. You want to leave it just like it is.  
Now you see how it's starting to come together. I'm taking it to my baking sheet, and that's where I'm going to finish it off. Now you're going to have some little left over floury bits in the bottom of your bowl. Don't worry about it, you don't need them. 
At this point see, look, you've got a giant biscuit, and that's just about right.  Now this right here is a quarter cup of melted butter, and a quarter cup of buttermilk.  And you're just going to pat the outside of it.  You don't want to brush it, because you don't want to go knock your bits off.  But this will help brown it and give it a beautiful crust in the oven.  You want to preheat your oven to 375 degrees, by the way.  The butter in here is going to act the same way it does with a biscuit, or pie crust.   It's going to hit the hot oven, it's going to release steam, and that's going to help it to rise.  Another thing is when the soda and the buttermilk get together, it releases gases, and in the hot oven this also helps give it rise. 
Now Irish soda bread, traditionally, had a nice big fat X cut across the top.  That served several purposes, and the first one was very practical.  It helps allow the bread to expand, when it hits the hot oven, and then it rises pretty quickly.  It also served as a reminder of the cross of Christ, and since this was the daily bread for most of the Irish people, it also served as a blessing.
The soda bread has been in for about 45, 50 minutes.  I've done three different bastes on it when I've put a little bit more of the butter and buttermilk on it.  We're going to bring it over here, and we're going to let it cool.  I'm going to slice it and show you what it looks like on the inside. That's where the good stuff is.
Got a little distracted, but we're about ten minutes. Almost, see how it's blooming open at the Xs, and it's getting toasty brown. The soda bread has come down in temperature where I can handle it.  Let me show you how this works.  You know how we made a little X at the top, and it allowed it to expand. Here's what else it does.  It gives you a perfect place to break your bread. I've got some strawberries in there that I think need to meet some cream and come to the table.

More from this channel