The Melting Pot 2.0/The Melting Pot 2.0.iso/rdytrd/mmirish1.txt

Text File | 1993-02-26 | 9KB | 198 lines

IRISH SODA BREAD -- introduction and recipes

(Including recipes for white soda, brown soda, treacle bread,
golden soda, currant soda)

Ireland's climate presents an immediate problem for the baker.
In the cool, wettish climate, the hard wheats, which make
flour with a high gluten content, don't prosper.  All-purpose
white and whole wheat flour -- what the Irish and British call
"strong white" or "strong wholemeal" -- always has a large
amount of the softer wheats mixed in:  otherwise the price
would be ridiculous.  Generally, unless people here go out of
their way to buy the more expensive "bread flour", with an
increased (and increasingly expensive) percentage of imported
hard-wheat flours mixed in, yeast breads tend not to be
terrifically successful.

With this in mind, the Irish did what was probably the most
sensible thing:  for everyday baking, they gave up on yeast
and came to depend mostly on other leavening agents, like
"bread soda" (just plain bicarbonate of soda, to US users).
Hence "soda bread".  Buttermilk is the preferred mixing
liquid:  its acidity activates the bicarb, releasing the CO2
that makes the bread rise.

Soda bread comes in two main colors, brown and white, and two
main types:  "cake" and "farl".  The latter are mostly
regional differences.  People in the south of Ireland tend to
make cake:  people up North seem to like farl better (though
both kinds appear both in the North and South, sometimes under
wildly differing names).  "Cake" is soda bread kneaded and
shaped into a flattish round, then cut with a cross on the top
(to let the bread stretch and expand as it rises in the oven)
and baked on a baking sheet.  Farl is rolled out and cut
crosswise into four pieces (the "farls") and usually baked in
a heavy frying pan or on a griddle, on top of the range rather
than in the oven.  You may hear these referred to as "brown
cake", "soda cake", "soda farl", "brown farl", "wheaten
bread", and any combination of numerous other weird terms.
(Yes, it gets confusing over here.  You learn pretty quickly
at the baker's to point and say, "Please, just give me one of
those.")

With all this said, the basic bread is extremely simple.  The
urge to be resisted is to do more stuff to it than
necessary...this is usually what keeps it from coming out
right the first few times.  Once you've mastered the basic
mixture, though, you can start adding things, coming up with
wonderful variations like treacle bread and so on.

Here's the basic recipe for white soda bread:

450 g / 1 lb / 3 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
Between 300-600 ml / 1/2 to 1 UK pint / 1 1/4 to 2 1/2 cups
       sour milk or buttermilk, to mix

"Sour milk" isn't milk that's gone bad.  It's milk
that has had a couple of teaspoons of buttermilk stirred into
it, has been put in a scalded container and wrapped in a towel, and
left in some peaceful corner at about 75 degrees F for 24
hours.  The original Irish name is *bainne clabhair*,
"clabbered milk", or "bonnyclabber" as the Scots have
anglicized it.  The flavor isn't *quite* as tart as
buttermilk, but there's enough acid to make the bicarb react
correctly.  If you don't have time to do sour milk, buttermilk
will do perfectly well.  Sweet milk doesn't work as well, and
your bread may not rise correctly:  if you're going to use
sweet milk, use baking powder instead of bicarbonate of soda.

First, decide whether you're making farl or cake.  If farl,
find your heaviest frying pan (cast iron is best) and put it
on to preheat at a low-medium heat.  (You're going to have to
experiment with settings.  Farl should take about 20 minutes
per side to get a slight toasty brown.)  If making cake,
preheat the oven to 450 F and find a baking sheet.  Full
preheating is vital for soda bread.


Sift the dry ingredients together several times to make sure
the bicarb is evenly distributed.  Put them in a good big bowl
(you want stirring room) and make a well in the center.  Pour
about half the buttermilk or sour milk or whatever in, say
about a cup and a quarter, and start stirring.  You are trying
to achieve a dough that is raggy and very soft, but the lumps
and rags of it should look dryish and "floury", while still
being extremely squishy if you poke them.  Add more liquid
very sparingly if you think you need it.

Blend until the whole mass of dough has become this raggy
consistency.  Then turn the contents of the bowl out
immediately onto a lightly floured board, and start to knead.
The chief concern here is speed:  the chemical reaction of the
bicarb with the buttermilk started as soon as they met, and
you want to get the bread into the oven while the reaction is
still running on "high".  DON'T OVERKNEAD.  You do not want
the traditional "smooth, elastic" ball of dough you would
expect with a yeast bread;  you simply want one that contains
almost everything that went into the bowl, in one mostly
cohesive lump.  You should not spend more than a minute or so
kneading...the less, the better.  You *don't* want to develop
the gluten in the flour.  If you do, you'll get a tough loaf.

Once you're done kneading, shape the bread.  For cake, flatten
the lump of dough to a circle about 6-8 inches in diameter,
and put it on the baking sheet.  Then use a very sharp knife
to cut a cross right across the circle:  the cuts should go
about halfway down through the sides of the circle of dough,
so that the loaf will "flower" properly.  If you're making
farl, use the same very sharp knife to cut the circle of dough
into four wedges.  Try not to crush or compress the dough
where you cut it (if the knife is sharp enough, you won't).

Then bake.  When putting cake in the oven, handle it lightly
and don't jar it:  the CO2 bubbles are a little vulnerable at
this point of the process.  Let it alone, and don't peek at
it. It should bake for 45 minutes at 450F.

If making farl, dust the hot griddle or frying pan with a
little flour, and put the farls in gently.  The cut edges
should be 1/2 inch or so apart to allow for expansion.  Give
the farls 20 minutes on a side:  they should be a sort of
mocha-toasty color before you turn them.  Keep an eye on the
heat:  they scorch easily.  The heat should be quite "slow".

If you're making cake:  At the end of 45 minutes, pick up the
loaf and tap the bottom.  A hollow sound means it's done.  For
a very crunchy crust, put on a rack to cool. For a softer
crust, wrap the cake in a clean dishcloth as soon as it comes
out of the oven.

Both ways, the soda bread is wonderful split and toasted.
Best served hot, though, with sweet butter and / or the jam or
jelly of your choice.

Soda farl is also one of the most important ingredients of the
Ulster Fry, the world's most dangerous breakfast.  Fried eggs,
fried Irish bacon, fried soda farl, fried potato farl (a 1/2-
inch thick potato bread, also cooked on a griddle), fried
black pudding, fried mushrooms...you get the picture.  Not to
be eaten every morning, and not for those closely watching
their cholesterol...but wonderful every now and then.


VARIATIONS:

"Spotted Dog":  add raisins, and maybe another teaspoon of
sugar.

"Currant soda":  1 1/2 lb flour, 4 oz currants, 4 oz raisins,
2 oz mixed candied peel, 3 oz butter, 1 tsp bicarb, 1 tsp
cream of tartar, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tablespoons sugar, buttermilk
to mix (judge it by eye, as above).  Sieve the dry ingredients
together;  rub in the butter;  add the fruit.  Add the
buttermilk, roll out very lightly, cut into farls, and bake as
for farl above.

"Golden soda":  substitute about 1 cup of fine-ground cornmeal
for a cup of the flour.

A really heretical variation:  Add chopped Jalapeno peppers to
the dry ingredients.  Mix and bake as above.  (My mother-in-
law will probably whack me one if she ever catches me doing
this.  But it does taste wonderful.)

For "Brown soda" / "wheaten bread":

4 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
Scant 1/2 cup oatmeal
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon salt
2-3 cups sour milk or buttermilk

Mix and bake exactly as above.  If you have trouble with this
one rising, your local mixture of whole wheat flour may be
responsible:  try decreasing the amount of whole wheat and
increasing the white flour.

"Treacle bread":

2 tablespoons dark molasses
7 fl oz milk (approximately)
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 lb flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
Good pinch of ground ginger

Heat the molasses and milk together.  Mix all dry ingredients
together:  add liquid until a soft dough is achieved.  With
floured hands, shape into a round cake about 1 1/2 inches
thick.  Cut into farls, put on a floured baking sheet and bake
at 400F for 40 minutes.