Irish Soda Bread: Artisan Bread Bakers

To commemorate St. Patrick’s Day, the Artisan Bread Baker’s group is making Irish Soda Bread for the March bread of the month. BOM (Bread of the Month) is a virtual bread-baking party hosted by Phyl Of Cabbages & King Cakes. The party started March 1st and ends March 31st. Click here to learn more about the Artisan Bread Bakers.

Soda Bread is the traditional bread of Ireland. It can be made with white or whole wheat flour.  Early Irish cooks bypassed yeast and used "bread soda" or "baking soda" because Irish flour was too soft to make yeast bread. The bread was cooked on a griddle set over the fire or in a bastable, which is a type of Dutch oven. In many parts of Ireland, soda bread is still shaped and baked as a round loaf with a cross marked on top.

To view more Irish Bread Recipes, click here.

 

What is Soda Bread?

Soda bread is a type of quick bread in which baking soda has been substituted for yeast. The ingredients of traditional soda bread are flour, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk. Other ingredients can be added such as raisins or various forms of nuts.

 

Make Your Own Buttermilk Plant

Buttermilk is an essential ingredient in traditional soda breads. It can be cultured very easily using a buttermilk plant. Here is a recipe to make a buttermilk plant for use in Irish Soda Breads and other recipes that call for buttermilk.

 

Irish Soda Bread Recipe

from Jeff Smith, aka The Frugal Gourmet
Makes: 2 Round Loaves

I only wanted to make one loaf so I halved the following recipe:

Ingredients:

6 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons sugar
l teaspoon salt
2 l/2 cups buttermilk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Add all of the dry ingredients to a large bowl and mix very well.

Pour all of the buttermilk into the bowl at once and stir, using a wooden spoon, just till a soft dough is formed.

 

Pour the contents of the bowl onto a lightly floured counter and knead for a minute or so till everything comes together.

Divide the dough into two portions and shape each into a round loaf, pressing the top down a bit to just barely flatten it. Place the loaves on a large ungreased baking sheet. I only made one loaf and decided to bake it in a ceramic dish rather than freeform.

Sprinkle with some addition flour on the top.

Using a sharp knife, make the sign of a Cross in slashes on the top of the loaf.

Allow the loaves to rest for 10 minutes and then bake on the middle rack for 40 minutes or till the loaves are golden brown and done to taste.

Remove the bread from the oven and let it cool before slicing or serving.

Soda bread can dry out quickly and is typically good for two to three days; it is best served warm or toasted.

This soda bread was actually pretty moist.  I liked it!  It didn’t have raisins or currants in it so it reminded me of a big biscuit!  It tasted good with butter and homemade citrus marmalade.

 

Thanks for visiting The Bread Experience Bread-Baking Blog. I hope you enjoyed your visit and will join me again next time.

Happy Baking!
--Cathy

Here are some additional bread-making resources:

• Irish Bread Recipes
• Bread Cookbooks
• Bread Making
• Baking Supplies
• Bread Flour
• Bread Mixes

You might enjoy some of the other breads that have been featured in the bread making blog.

Caramelized Red Onion Relish and Pizza: tigress can jam

When I saw this month’s tigress can jam choice posted on Small Measure, I thought “what’s an allium?”  Then I found out that the allium family consists of green scallions, chives, scapes, ramps, leeks, husky onions, shallots, and garlic.

So onions are alliums!  Well, why didn’t you just say so?  I like onions so I set out to find the perfect recipe. 

I found several recipes for onion marmalades, chutneys and relish. I couldn’t quite wrap my taste buds around the idea of an onion marmalade yet so I skipped over that one.  I wasn’t ready to make chutney either so I scratched that one off the list – for now.

Then, I found a recipe for onion relish in The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving. The relish sounded pretty good, but I wondered what in the world to eat it with!

Just so happens, the authors provided the perfect solution; use it as a pizza topping.  I like pizza so I decided this recipe was the ticket.

Caramelized Red Onion Relish
From The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving 
Makes: 2 cups

Ingredients:
2 large red onions, peeled
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup dry red wine (I used Shiraz)
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/8 teaspoon each: salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions:

Slice onions into very thin slices.  Combine onions and sugar in a heavy non-stick skillet.

Cook, uncovered, over medium-high heat for about 25 minutes or until onions turn golden and start to caramelize, stirring frequently.

Stir in wine and vinegar.  Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to low and cook for about 15 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated, stirring frequently.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Spoon into a clean wide-mouth jar and cool briefly.

Remove hot jars from canner and ladle relish into jars to within 1/2 inch of rim (headspace). I used one pint-size jar.  I had a little bit left over so I refrigerated it to use on the pizza.

Process 10 minutes for half-pint jars or 15 minutes for pint jars.  If you live in a higher altitude or need more detailed instructions on water-bath canning, please refer to the instructions at the National Center for Home Preservation.

 

Caramelized Red Onion & Tomato Pizza
Makes: 24 appetizers (or one medium pizza)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Caramelized Red Onion Relish
4 individual pizza crusts (or one medium) I used Artisan Bread in Five Minutes Olive Oil Dough for the crust
1 medium tomato, diced (I sliced it instead)
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (or enough to cover the pizza)

Directions:

Divide onion mixture among pizza crust(s), spreading evenly.  Combine tomato and cheese, sprinkle over onion.  Bake in a 350 degrees F. oven for about 10 minutes or until hot and cheese is melted.  Cut each pizza into 6 wedges or however you prefer.

I baked the crust for 5 minutes, then topped it with the onion, tomato and cheese.

I didn’t mix the tomato and cheese.  I just layered the onions, then the tomatoes, then the cheese and baked the pizza another 5 minutes or so until the cheese was melted.

My BF and I had the pizza for dinner rather than as an appetizer. I wasn’t sure how it would taste, but it was really good!  The onions have a slightly sweet fermented flavor that blended really well with the tomatoes and mozzarella cheese.  I added some Italian seasoning to my slice which rounded out the flavor.  My BF added hot sauce to his.

We enjoyed this relish on the pizza, but I also think it would go really well with hamburgers, hotdogs or other types of sandwiches.  Good thing because I have a pint of it to use up.

 

We're making jams or pickling every month in 2010. For more info, go to tigress' Can Jam.  Be sure to check out the March Can Jam Roundup.

 

 

Happy Canning and Baking!
Cathy

Here are some of the references I use in my canning adventures. You might enjoy them as well:

• Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
• The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving
• Keeping The Harvest: Discover the Homegrown Goodness of Putting Up Your Own Fruits, Vegetables and Herbs
• National Center for Home Preservation

Avocado-Guacamole Pizza with Roasted Peppers and Buns with Vegetarian Chili: HBinFive

The next bread in the March 15th HBinFive Bread Braid is Avocado-Guacamole Bread.  As the name suggests, the dough is made with avocado, along with some tomato and garlic. 

With half of the Avocado-Guacamole dough, I made Pizza with Roasted Red Peppers, Onions & Garlic.

For the flour, I used a mixture of freshly milled hard red spring wheat and hard white winter wheat in addition to the all-purpose flour. 

If you’re interested in learning more about milling your own grains, check out our Home Milling section.

I didn’t add any additional ingredients to the dough or use any sauce. Instead, I dribbled olive oil over the top and added some red peppers, onions and garlic that I had roasted in garlic oil and seasoned with cilantro. I had some leftover Havarti cheese (with Jalapenos) from another function so I grated it and sprinkled it over the top.

I baked the dough for about 5 minutes, topped it, then baked it some more until the cheese was melted.  I had spread the dough out pretty thin so once it baked, it was a little bit crispy in some places and not in others but it tasted great! 

Here’s a close-up of a slice.  The flavor was fabulous!  My son said it tasted good as an appetizer, but he thought he would go hungry without meat on his pizza.  Lol…  

 

With the other half of the dough, I made Avocado-Guacamole Buns and served them with Vegetarian Chili.

The authors of Healthy Bread In Five Minutes mentioned that this bread had a smoky flavor that went well with chili.  That sounded like a wonderful idea to me!  Just so happens that when I made this bread, it was rainy… the perfect night for some chili.

The buns tasted good, but not as flavorful as I had expected.  The flavor worked well with the chili, but I think next time, I’ll add some more garlic to the dough.

For the chili, I used the recipe below, but omitted the chopped chipotles. The first time I made this chili, it was way too hot even for my sons and BF.  This time, I added some extra chili powder and crushed red pepper flakes instead of the chipotles.  It was much more palatable, especially for me.

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(Not So) Spicy Vegetarian Chili
Adapted from http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/492

This vegetarian chili has a wonderful flavor!  This is coming from someone who loves chili with meat in it, mind you.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive or canola oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 medium green bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped
1 medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 to 3 tablespoons finely chopped chipotles in adobo sauce
1 tablespoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder (plus a little extra)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, with their liquid
3 cups cooked red kidney beans, drained (I used canned)
1 1/2 cups cooked black beans, drained (I used canned)
Red Pepper Flakes (to taste)

Directions

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions, carrots, celery, peppers and garlic and cook for 10 to 12 minutes, until vegetables are softened but not browned. Add chipotles, oregano, cumin, chili powder, red pepper flakes, and salt. Stir to blend. Add tomatoes and 4 cups water.  I reduced the amount of water because we like thick chili. Gently simmer over low heat, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Add beans and simmer an additional 30 minutes. Garnish individual bowls with green onions or sour cream, if desired.

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Thanks for joining me in the bread-baking blog.  Check out Michelle's blog to see what everyone else bakes for the March 15th bread braid.

Happy Baking!
Cathy

These Avocado-Guacamole Buns have been YeastSpotted. Please visit Wild Yeast to view all of the lovely breads in the roundup.

 

About the HBinFive Baking Group

The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes book. For more information on the HBinFive baking group, check out Michelle's blog.

 

 

Here are some additional bread-making resources:

• Pizza Recipes
• Bread Recipes
• Bread Cookbooks
• Bread Making
• Baking Supplies
• Bread Flour
• Bread Mixes

You might enjoy some of the other breads that have been featured in the bread making blog.

Vienna Bread: BBA

I had high hopes for the 39th bread in the BBA Challenge.  Most of the other bakers had good things to say about it.  Plus, the Dutch Crunch topping, made with a mixture of rice flour, a little bread flour, yeast, sugar, salt, vegetable oil and water sounded so good.  So, I set out to make the Vienna Bread.

I began the process of making this bread about 6 days before I planned to bake the bread. I wasn’t able to find diastatic barley malt powder locally and I didn’t want to order it online, so I decided to sprout some wheat grains and make my own malt powder. 

Making Diastatic Malt Powder using Sprouted Wheat Grains

It took about 3 days for the wheat to sprout, then another day to dry the sprouted grains so I could grind them in my bread mill without clogging it up. 

If you’re interested in learning how to sprout wheat grains, refer to my post on sprouted wheat bread.

Just for kicks, here is a comparison of the dried sprouted grains versus regular grains that haven’t been sprouted. The dried sprouted wheat is on the left.

After I dried the sprouted grains, I ground them in my bread mill.  Here is the freshly ground diastatic malt powder.

Making the Pre Ferment

Now, it was time to make the Pâte Fermentée, but there was a slight problem.  The formula for the Pâte Fermentée makes 18 ounces and this bread only uses 13 ounces. So right off the bat, this bread was making me work. 

In order to get the right percentages, I had to scale the amounts.  Fortunately, Phyl Of Cabbages & King Cakes provided an easy breakdown of how to use baker’s math to do this step.  Thanks Phyl!

So, I made the Pâte Fermentée, let it rest for 2 hours, then put it in the refrigerator overnight. For a step-by-step breakdown of how to make Pâte Fermentée, check out my post on French Baguettes.

The next day, I took the Pâte Fermentée out of the refrigerator, cut it into pieces, covered it with plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter for an hour to take off the chill.

Making the Dough

Stir together the dry ingredients.

Add the Pâte Fermentée pieces and the liquid ingredients.

Then stir everything with a Danish dough whisk (or your mixer if you must) until the dough comes together to form a ball.

Transfer the dough to a counter sprinkled with flour and knead it for about 10 minutes to make a firm but supple dough.  It should be slightly tacky but not sticky.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and roll the dough around to coat it with oil. 

Cover it with plastic wrap and let it ferment at room temperature for 2 hours.

Shaping the Loaves

Remove the dough from the bowl and divide it into 2 pieces.

 

Shape the pieces, into boules.

Spray them with cooking spray, cover with plastic wrap and let them rest on the counter for 20 minutes.

Shape the pieces into batards, then transfer them to a parchment lined baking sheet sprinkled with semolina or corn meal.

For step-by-step instructions on shaping batards, refer to the Tuscan Bread post.

Proofing the Loaves

Brush the Dutch Crunch on the loaves.  Brushing the crunch topping on before proofing is supposed to provide greater separation and mottling; whereas if you brush it on right before baking, the coating is more even.

Mist the dough lightly, cover with plastic wrap, then let the batards proof at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes, or until about 1 3/4 their original size.

 

Preparing the Loaves for Baking

Prepare the oven for hearth baking by placing a steam pan in place.   Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Right before baking the loaves, mist the loaves with water and dust lightly with bread flour by topping some flour through a sieve.

I was so proud of myself when I did this part because I thought it looked really cool with the dusted flour.  Little did I realize that I had just made a mistake.  More about that later…

Moving right along… I scored the loaves down the center.

Then put them in the oven to bake.

I rotated the loaves about halfway through for even baking.

I let them continue baking until they reached a medium brown color. About 30 minutes total baking time.

Then I transferred the loaves to a cooling rack to cool for about an hour before I got to taste them.

Here are the finished loaves.  I was so proud of the way they looked, I just couldn’t wait to cut a slice and taste it. 

So, I sliced a loaf and took a bite!

Boy was I ever disappointed!  I couldn’t taste anything but flour.  My taste tester tried it and said it tasted dusty.  I thought it was the Dutch Crunch Topping that we didn’t like and I was wishing I had made one without it so we could compare, but I finally realized it was the flour I had dusted on the loaves just before baking them. Remember, I said I made a mistake.  Well, I shouldn’t have dusted the flour since I was using the Dutch Crunch.  Oh well!  That’s what I get for trying to do too many things at once.  I’m sure you never do that, right?

I had another slice warm with butter and it tasted better, but I just really wasn’t thrilled with it. My taste tester liked the bread and said I was being too hard on it. Since he liked it, I sent the rest of the loaf home with him and froze the other one.

 

It’s a beautiful bread and I worked really hard on it so I’m sending it over to be YeastSpotted.  Please visit Wild Yeast to view all of the lovely breads in the roundup.

 

I do plan on make the Vienna Bread again sometime because I don’t think I gave it a fair shot. Next time, I’ll make one loaf with and one without the Dutch Crunch and reduce the amount of Dutch Crunch made.  As some of the other bakers have mentioned, it makes more than you need for these loaves.

 

Thanks for joining us in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. The next bread in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge is White Bread.  I plan to make Variation #3 (page 269 in the Bread Baker's Apprentice).

Be sure to Follow along with other bakers in the challenge
And, join the BBA Challenge Facebook Group

Happy Baking!

Cathy

You might enjoy some of the other breads that we've featured in the Bread Baking Blog.

Feel free to leave a comment about this blog, or submit your own bread experience. We'd love to highlight your story on The Bread Experience site.