sometimesithinkstuff:

I made a post earlier talking about how I love to make my own bread and it got me thinking about how there are so many other great types of bread than just white bread. Some of which are actually even easier to make. One of these types is Irish soda bread. Soda bread is a delicious and incredibly inexpensive peasant bread and while it can be a real sticky mess, it&rsquo;s incredibly fun!
Irish Soda Bread Recipe:
You will need:
4 cups all purpose (Plain) flour.
Extra flour for coating the work surface.
1 teaspoon baking soda.
1 teaspoon salt.
1&nbsp;3/4 cups buttermilk.
A sharp knife.
Aluminum foil.
1 large mixing bowl.
A mixing spoon.
A baking sheet.
A wire mesh sieve.
A wide stiff (SANITARY) paintbrush, tea towel, or paper towel.
Tips and Notes:
If you can&rsquo;t get your hands on buttermilk, don&rsquo;t worry. You can make a simple buttermilk substitute using regular milk (Whole milk or full fat milk works best) and white vinegar. Simply combine 1&nbsp;3/4 cups regular milk and 1 tablespoon and 2&nbsp;1/4 teaspoons white vinegar in a non metal bowl or cup and stir. Allow to sit at room temperature for 30-60 minutes and voila! Buttermilk substitute! The longer you let the milk sit, the stronger the soured, buttermilk flavor will be.&nbsp;
For the best results when bread making, try to stay away from a metal mixing bowl and mixing spoon if possible.
The acid in the buttermilk, or the vinegar in the buttermilk substitute, react with the baking soda in soda bread, which acts as the leavening agent that makes the bread rise. Much the same as a baking soda volcano works. However, if you&rsquo;ve ever made a baking soda volcano, you&rsquo;ll know this chemical reaction doesn&rsquo;t last forever, so you need to work really quickly when making soda bread to assure you get the lightest loaf possible.
Some people add eggs, sugar, or fruit to soda bread, but this is completely against the Irish tradition and is really looked down on amongst traditional bakers. Eggs and sugar make the bread more like a cake, and detract from the simple sourdough like flavor it&rsquo;s supposed to have. My recipe doesn&rsquo;t include any of these things, but if you feel you really MUST have them, 1/4 cup castor sugar and 2 eggs is a general amount. The sugar is added in with the dry ingredients and the eggs are beaten into the buttermilk or prepared buttermilk substitute&nbsp;immediately&nbsp;before adding. Any dried fruits or nuts can be added as desired and should be stirred into the flour and other dry ingredients before adding the wet. This will coat them with flour and keep them from sinking to the bottom of the loaf during the baking process.&nbsp;But you should be ashamed of yourself.
Soda bread dough is probably the stickiest thing you will ever encounter in your entire life. You&rsquo;re going to make a mess. And the best you can do is just keep throwing flour at the dough monster once it&rsquo;s on the work surface to try and beat it into submission enough to make it come together and get it onto that baking tray.
If you don&rsquo;t have aluminum foil, you can substitute an oven safe pot turned upside down over the loaf in the oven.
To get a crispier, flakier exterior for your bread, allow it to cool uncovered on a cooling rack before serving. To get a softer loaf, remove the bread from the baking sheet after baking and cleaning off the excess flour and wrap it in a tea towel or paper towels and allow it to sit on a cooling rack until cool. The trapped steam will keep the loaf nice and soft just like bagged bread from the supermarket.
Method:&nbsp;
Preheat the oven to 425F or 218C. It&rsquo;s very important that you have a hot oven as soon as you&rsquo;re done with the dough, as you need to finish this dough as quickly as possible and start it baking to&nbsp;achieve&nbsp;a light and fluffy bread.
Sift together the flour and baking soda into the mixing bowl and then stir in the salt gently, taking care not to shoot flour all over your kitchen.
Make a small well in the center of your dry mixture and using one hand, slowly pour the buttermilk or buttermilk substitute into the well and with your other hand, gently start to fold the flour into the milk until it is combined enough to stir easily. This dough is going to get VERY VERY sticky. Just keep stirring until completely combined.&nbsp;
Turn out the dough onto a WELL floured work surface, being sure to scrape down the bowl and spoon to remove the stuck dough.
Quickly knead the dough gently, just enough to pull it together, but not too long or the baking soda and acid/vinegar reaction will die and your bread will not rise. You also can&rsquo;t knead the dough too hard or the gases building up inside the dough from the reaction will escape and again, your bread will not rise.
Once you have finished kneading the dough, roll it into as close to a ball as you can and place it on a floured, not greased, baking sheet. At this point the dough is going to be covered with flour, but don&rsquo;t worry too much about that now, we&rsquo;ll take care of it once we&rsquo;re done baking.
Using the sharp knife, cut a cross into the dough that covers the entire top, going about 3/4 of an inch or 1.8&nbsp;cm deep. This allows the bread to rise properly without tearing and gives you a beautiful artisan finish.
Cover the baking sheet with aluminum foil completely, so no steam can escape, leaving a little bit of a tent over the dough ball to allow it room to rise.&nbsp;
Bake the dough for 30 minutes and then remove the foil and allow to bake for an additional 30 minutes&nbsp;or until the top of the loaf makes a hollow sound when rapped with a mixing spoon or your knuckles.
Remove the loaf from the oven and using the paint brush, brush the excess flour off of the finished bread.
Congratulations! Enjoy your traditional and delicious Irish Soda Bread my dear Kitchen Wizard!
White Bread Recipe
