Subject: RECIPE: Irish soda bread
From: [email-masked] (David Hendler)
Date: 18 Sep 87 03:09:01 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.gourmand

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.RH MOD.RECIPES-SOURCE  SODA-BREAD B "15 Apr 87" 1987
.RZ "IRISH SODA BREAD" "Two white soda loaves"
This is a basic soda bread, following the Irish mode.  I scaled up
the recipe from one of Beard's, and changed it some.  It is quite
crusty, and really all-purpose.  This soda bread takes around a third
the time and a half the effort of a comparable yeast bread.  Since no
yeast bread is much like it, I don't know what would be comparable.
People who have never tried a soda bread will note many differences, like
the order you add things (flour and then the liquid...).
.IH "2 loaves"
.IG "8 cups" "white flour (unbleached)" "800 g"
.IG "3\-4 cups" "buttermilk," "8\-10 dl"
at room temperature
.IG "1 tsp" "salt" "5 ml"
.IG "2 tsp" "baking powder" "10 ml"
.IG "1.5 tsp" "baking soda" "7.5 ml"
.IG "1 cup" "currants" "150 g"
(optional)
.IG "1 tsp" "butter or oil" "5 ml"
.PH
.SK 1
Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 
.SK 2
Preheat the oven to 
.TE 350 175 .
.SK 3
Stir in  buttermilk, a cup at a time.  You should make a fairly
soft dough that will nonetheless hold its shape.  Thus, you may need 
the full amount of buttermilk.
.SK 4
Turn the dough out onto a well-floured board (this is a stock phrase;
do it anyway).  Knead until it is smooth and soft, probably about 7
minutes.  You should have to keep adding a little flour to the board
for the first few minutes to keep the dough from sticking.
.SK 5 
Are you using currants? Knead them in, then.  Or don't, accordingly.
.SK 6
Tear the dough in half.  Form each half into a ball.  With a
knife, slash a cross in the top.  
.SK 7
Place the balls, cross up, well apart, on a greased baking sheet.
.SK 8 
Put this sheet, bread side up, into the oven.
.SK 9 
Bake for 35 or 40 minutes.
The loaves are done when they sound hollow at a knocking hand.  They
should also get to be a nice light brown color.  The cross will split
open, and the resultant points will get hard and dark brown.  Soda
bread has a tendency to crack in the oven.  This is no big deal.
.SH NOTES
You can substitute, per James Beard's recommendation, about 4 cups of
whole-wheat flour for half the white.  Since this will be heavier, use
about 40% more baking powder. The bread made this way is markedly different.  
.SH RATING
.I Difficulty:
easy to moderate.
.I Time:
30 minutes building, 45 minutes baking.
.I Precision:
Measure the ingredients.
.WR
David Hendler
Aiken Computation Lab (Harvard Univ.)
[email-masked]