Riley Family Soda Bread Food

MARILYN O'REILLY'S IRISH SODA BREAD

Steps:

• Set a rack in the middle level of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees.
• In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, soda and salt and stir well to mix.
• Add the butter and rub in until the butter disappears into the dry ingredients.
• Stir in the caraway seeds if used and the raisins.
• In a small bowl, whisk the buttermilk and egg together and mix into the dough mixture with a rubber spatula.
• Turn the dough out on a floured work surface and fold it over on itself several times, shaping it into a round loaf. Transfer the loaf to one cookie sheet or jelly roll pan covered with parchment or foil and cut a cross in the top. Bake for 15 minutes then reduce heat to 350 and cook for about 15 to 20 minutes more, until well colored and a toothpick plunged into the center emerges clean.
• Cool the soda bread on a rack and serve with plenty of sweet butter and bitter orange marmalade.

FRUITY IRISH SODA BREAD

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
• In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, allspice and salt and mix well. Cut the butter and shortening into small pieces and add to the flour mixture. Using your fingers, work the cold butter and shortening into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add the egg, the buttermilk, the dried fruit and the walnuts and mix into the flour mixture until it is incorporated. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead gently until the dough forms a smooth ball. Shape the dough into a round loaf. Place the dough onto a lightly oiled baking sheet. Score the top of the loaf with a very sharp knife. Place the loaf in the oven and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until golden brown.

COPYCAT RANKIN IRISH FRUIT SODA BREAD

Steps:

• Pre-heat the oven to about 180 Celcius (around 350 Fahrenheit / Gas Mark 4), or perhaps just a little less.
• Lightly oil or grease a small (1Lb) loaf tin or lightly flour (or oil) a flat baking tray if you don't have / want to use a loaf tin.
• If substituting for the buttermilk with milk and lemon juice then do that now and put it aside.
• Sieve/sift the flour into a medium sized mixing bowl and add the salt. Scoop up handfuls and allow to drop back into the bowl to aerate the mixture.
• Add the Sultanas and if using them, caraway seeds and vitamin C powder.
• Stir together with a wooden spoon.
• Add and stir in the baking soda.
• Add enough of the buttermilk to make a soft dough. Now work quickly as the buttermilk and soda are already reacting. Knead the dough lightly - too much handling will toughen it, while too little means it won't rise properly. It should require a couple of minutes at most. Basically you're adding the buttermilk as you're kneading it just enough to work the ingredients together properly at which point it needs to be baked straight away in the hot oven.
• If using a baking tray rather than a loaf tin, then form a round loaf about as thick as your fist. Otherwise shape it to a similar size but such as will fit in the loaf tin.
• Place it on a lightly-floured baking tray and lightly cut a cross in the top with a floured knife "to let the faeries out so they don't jinx your bread", or just put it in the loaf tin and lengthways cut a line along the top.
• Put at once to bake near the top of the pre-heated oven. Bake for about 35-45 minutes. "When baked, the loaf will sound hollow when rapped on the bottom with your knuckles.".
• Wrap immediately in a clean tea-towel if you prefer the crust to be softer.
• This bread will keep well for a couple of days if very well wrapped. If unwrapped it will dry out very quickly - within half a day. It freezes beautifully.
• Best served slightly warm on its own or with butter.
• Note:.
• The Rankin recipe that I was copying does not use caraway seeds at all and uses sultanas not raisins. Some Irish fruit soda bread recipes use caraway seeds and a larger number don't. I love caraway seeds but I like this bread best without. I've listed as a suggestion only. I use Bread flour because I have plenty and I imagine it gives a better rise but I understand that plain flour (All Purpose Flour) works just fine-never used it myself.
• Historical notes:.
• There are hundreds or thousands of recipes, most of them contain egg or rice flour or cornflour etc. Such ingredients would not have been available to most poor Irish families in towns and cities. The point of Irish Soda Breads (as well as Scottish Shortbreads for that matter) was that it was made by a people so poor that they could not even afford to buy yeast (which was not readily available) to bake their daily bread and was basically the normal bread such as they baked every day which had sugar and fruit added as a special sweet and fruity Sunday treat because they couldn't afford to make a proper cake.
• It's convenient from a cutting point of view if you've got a very small loaf tin, but a flat or round baking tray will do fine. It was originally made as round loaf sitting on a griddle (UK: basically a form of frying pan) baked in a Bastible (an iron baking pot - a type of oven - they were made in Barnstable, Devon hence the name) over the glowing embers of a peat turf fire. Because of the way the bread rises it's not essential to be so accurate as it is with a yeast-based bread so volume measures (cups and spoons) could just as easily be used instead if you don't have a set of kitchen scales as would have been the case across Ireland in the early 1800s when they were first made.

SALLY'S IRISH SODA BREAD

Steps:

• Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sugar.
• Cut in butter until consistency of cornmeal.
• Add raisins to mix.
• Add vinegar to milk to make sour milk.
• Mix egg into sour milk.
• Pour milk mixture into flour mixture just until flour is wet.
• Do not overmix!
• Grease a cast iron skillet or loaf pan with Pam or butter.
• Pour mixture into pan.
• Take a knife and slash an X down the middle of batter.
• Bake at 350-375 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

TRADITIONAL IRISH SODA BREAD

Steps:

• Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Brush a baking sheet with melted butter or spray with non-stick spray.
• Combine dry ingredients in a deep bowl. Gradually stir in 1 cup buttermilk, beating constantly, until dough is firm enough to be gathered into a ball. If dough crumbles, add up to 1/2 cup more buttermilk, 1 tbsp at a time, until it holds together.
• Place on a lightly floured board and pat into an 8-inch flattened round loaf.
• Place loaf on baking sheet and slash a 1/2-inch deep "X" into the top of the dough with a small, sharp knife.
• Bake at 425 degrees F for about 45 minutes, or until the top is golden.
• Serve hot.

ROSIE'S TRADITIONAL IRISH SODA BREAD

Steps:

• Combine dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
• In a small bowl beat eggs and stir in sour cream.
• Add the egg and sour cream mixture to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon.
• Batter will be very thick.
• Add the raisins and caraway seeds and stir well with wooden spoon or knead in with your hands.
• Place batter in a greased 9 inch springform pan.
• Dust the top with enough flour so that you can pat the batter like a bread dough evenly in the pan without it sticking to your hands.
• With a knife make a shallow crisscross on the top.
• Bake for 50 minutes in a preheated 350ºF oven.

IRISH SODA BREAD

Steps:

• 1. Preheat oven to 350*F.
• 2. Pour raisins into medium size bowl,cover with water,and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Remove from microwave and set aside to cool. then drain completely. Leave till ready to use.
• 3. Lightly spray a jelly roll size pan,baking sheet or 2 cast iron skillets with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
• 4. Sift flour, sugar,salt, baking powder, baking soda together in a large bowl,& then pour into a food processor that has been fitted with a metal blade. Secure lid of processor.
• 5. Add the cold butter and pulse 8 to 12 times or until mixture resembles course crumbs.
• 6. Add the two beaten eggs and buttermilk,and process until dough comes together about a minute or two.
• 7. Dust work surface with the remaining 1 1/2 cups of flour; turn out the dough onto work surface.
• 8. Add the plump raisins and optional caraway seeds if using, knead with floured hands till raisins are incorporated into the dough, and then divide the dough into two equal portions, and shape into two round breads.
• 9. Transfer to prepared baking pan or skillet.Brush loaves with egg wash, till covered completely.Then with a serrated knife cut an X in top of each loaf.
• 10. Bake in preheated 350*F. oven for 45 to 50 minutes or until top is golden brown and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. The bread should sound hallow when tapped on the bottom with a knife. Remove from oven and let cool on wire rack for 15 minutes. Slice and serve warm with additional butter.
• 11. Makes 2 loaves.Just a word of caution if you do not have a large capacity food processor, you may want to make half the recipe at a time, or finish in a mixer with a dough hook. Electric knife works really well for slicing. Plumping the raisins adds moisture to the bread.