Irish Soda Bread

Because I am Irish myself I suppose I’m a bit partial to soda bread. In Ireland its sold all over the country in wonderful hand formed loaves, which are a tender combination of wheat, oats, sweet butter, a touch of sugar and buttermilk. The following recipe comes from the small town of Schull where my parents have lived for almost forty years now and when I come home it’s the first thing I eat. Soda bread is not unlike a much larger and somewhat denser biscuit. The key to this bread is not to overwork the dough so as to keep the loaf nice and tender when it’s finished.

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour                              1 cup

All purpose flour                              2 cups

Sea salt                                       ½ teaspoon

Baking Soda                                    1 teaspoon

Cream of tartar                                ½ teaspoon

Granulated sugar                               ¼ cup (I use vanilla sugar)

Unsalted butter                                4 tablespoon, cold

Buttermilk                                     2 cups

Method

Preheat the oven to 400. Grease a 9-inch loaf pan.

In a large stainless steel bowl mix all of the dry ingredients together. When this is done work in the butter with your hands or a pastry cutter until all of the butter pieces are well incorporated and about pea size.

Next add the buttermilk and gently mix until all ingredients are just incorporated and then knead the dough until it forms into a well formed round loaf size.

With a knife make a cross along the top of the loaf, place in prepared loaf pan and bake until golden brown for about 40 minutes.