Irish Recipe: Soda Bread Extraordinaire

With St. Patrick's Day just around the corner, I'm inspired to bake up a few Irish specialties. In an earlier blog post, "Baking Irish," I shared my first experience making Irish soda bread, with a recipe from Irish chef Darina Allen. Since I played with the bread's ingredients a little too much, I got mixed results--but when a new opportunity came up to share some yummy Irish food (a bookstore event for my Irish novel, Mother Love), I figured it was time to up my game. I consulted my treasured copy of Darina's comprehensive cookery book, Forgotten Skills of Cooking, and decided to bake soda bread again...but with a twist: "Spotted Dog."

Why the strange name? In addition to the usual flour, soda, salt and buttermilk, for "Spotted Dog," Darina uses a touch of sugar, raisins, and an organic egg, making a richer, more cake-like soda bread. The raisins create the "spots."

To me, "Spotted Dog" is far tastier than regular soda bread. I substituted dried cranberries for the raisins, and it turned out great! They add enough sweetness to offset the soda, I think. A bit of technique: The trick to soda bread, according to Darina, is to mix things the traditional way, with your hands, not a spoon: first the dry ingredients, lifting the flour mixture and letting it sift through your fingers. Then make a "well" in the dry stuff, and pour in your the wet ingredients, mixing with your hands as well. The first time I made soda bread, I made the mistake of soaking the raisins in a little boiling water before combining. The wet raisins made the dough soggy and the bread heavy, so  just put your dried fruit in with the flour mixture. Then get your hands right into the flour and swirl it around!

I also found that if you use a bit less salt than the recipe calls for, the bread doesn't have that trace of bitterness that baking soda can impart. I never liked soda bread much before, but John and I have made this "dog" a regular item here at Berryridge Farm!

Here's Darina's recipe:

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
2/3 cup golden or seedless raisins
1 organic egg
1 1/3 cup buttermilk

You use the same basic techniques for regular soda bread. (See above.) You mix the dry stuff (and raisins) together and sort of fluff things up with your fingers. Then you mix in the egg and buttermilk at the same time, again, hand mixing with your fingers. Try not to over mix! You "tidy up the dough" then pat it into a round and transfer to a baking sheet. Don't forget to cut a cross into the top with a sharp knife, plus pricking the four corners to "let the fairies out"!

Bake at 400 for 35-40 minutes. You can serve this bread fresh out of the oven...and eat it the Irish way, smeared with lots of butter and jam!

4th Village of Ballydara novel

By the way, Kerry McCormack, the country girl-heroine of my latest Irish novel, The Galway Girls, is a great one for making soda bread...you can find out more about The Galway Girls at
www.susancolleenbrowne.com!