TRADITIONAL SODA BREAD

If you are looking for an authentic Irish experience, try this recipe from the Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread. This simple and delicious recipe has been used for generations.

Believe it or not all recipes for traditional soda bread contain only four ingredients. Flour, baking soda, sour milk (buttermilk) and salt. That’s it!!!

This mainstay didn’t keep long so it had to be baked every few days. Irish Soda Bread does not contain whiskey or other liquors or enhancements like raisins, caraway or candied fruit, thereby making it a staple food item rather than a treat. If the recipe you have used in the past contains any of these items, it is not the traditional soda bread that has eaten by the Irish since the mid-19th century.

Traditional Soda Bread

INGREDIENTS

4 Cups (16 oz.) of all-purpose flour
1 Teaspoon baking soda
1 Teaspoon salt
14 Ounces of buttermilk

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Lightly grease and flour a cake pan.
In a large bowl sift and combine all the dry ingredients.
Add the buttermilk to form a sticky dough.
Place on floured surface and lightly knead.
Form into a round flat shape in a round cake pan and cut a cross in the top of the dough.
Cover the pan with another pan of the same size and bake for 30 minutes.
Remove cover and bake for an additional 15 minutes.
The bottom of the bread will have a hollow sound when tapped to show it is done.
Cover the bread in a tea towel and lightly sprinkle water on the cloth to keep the bread moist.

Fun Fact: Covering the bread with a pan of equal size replicates the bastible pot, a flat-bottomed pot that was the primary cooking tool in Irish kitchens in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.