Soda bread
Time: 45 mins | Difficulty: 1/5 | Yield: One small loaf
Soda bread! Maybe the simplest and humblest of all breads. There’s no proofing, there’s barely any kneading, and it all comes together in minutes. According to the Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread, the earliest documented recipe for soda bread in Ireland is dated back to 1836! (My favorite part of this recipe is the note to knead the ingredients “all intimately together”…) The rise comes from the interaction between the acid in the buttermilk, and the baking soda. Basically, this recipe is like a baking soda volcano, but one that you can eat! This recipe makes a small-ish loaf that’s perfect for one person, but you can easily double it if you need to feed more people.
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup of buttermilk (or, if you don’t have buttermilk, combine 3/4 cup of milk with 1 3/4 tsp of lemon juice)
Butter, for greasing the parchment paper
Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 450°.
Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a big bowl.
Make a well in the center of the bowl, and pour in the buttermilk.
Using your hands or a rubber spatula, combine the wet and dry ingredients until everything just comes together in a ball. Knead the dough as little as possible, or the bread will become stodgy.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and grease the paper lightly with some butter. Tip the bread out onto the baking sheet, and shape it into a round, about an inch-and-a-half or so tall.
Slice through the middle of the bread, top-to-bottom and left-to-right. (If you’re making smaller loaves, you can get away with just one slice). Make sure to slice all the way to the bottom of the dough—this is the only way the heat escapes, and the bread will puff up and fill the gaps while baking!
Bake at 450 for 10 minutes, then turn the heat down to 425 for 10-15 more minutes. The loaf should be lightly golden brown, and sound hollow when you tap the bottom.
Serve with lots of butter!