Here’s a quick recipe for Irish bread with baking soda that can substitute the traditional bread. Many of you know that I do not like baking powder or baking soda and that I use them very rarely, just when it is impossible to make a recipe without these ingredients. I was hesitant about this yeast-free bread but, I decided to give it a try given the fact that it is used by a whole nation who enjoys it.
The traditional Irish soda bread contains some sugar, but luckily, it is not very sweet. You can serve it with butter, jam and cheese, depending on your taste.
Add some sour milk to activate the baking soda. If you do not have this ingredient you can mix a little yogurt with sweet milk or water or you can acidify the sweet milk with a teaspoon of lemon juice. Baking powder is something else because it already contains the acidic component required for activation and in this case you can use sweet milk directly. Check that your baking soda is fresh! Theoretically, it has no expiry date, but over time, if exposed to moisture, it changes its properties.
Ingredients:
buttermilk
egg
flour
sugar
baking soda
salt
butter
Preparation:
- Whisk the wet ingredients together.
- Whisk the dry ingredients together.
- Cut cold butter into the dry ingredients. Like scones and pie crust, cutting cold butter into the flour is a key step. Coating the flour in cold butter guarantees a lovely flaky texture. You can use a fork, your hands, or a pastry cutter.
- Add the wet ingredients.
- Bring the dough together with your hands and knead a few times. You can watch me knead the dough in the video tutorial above. Don’t stress, it’s really easy!
- Bake until golden brown.
- Enjoy this traditional and tasty Irish bread recipe!