Irish soda bread has a reputation—it’s quick and easy and yet rustic, but can be a bit rough on your stomach and supposedly goes heavy and rocklike within a day. Most people blame the whole wheat or the lack of yeast. I blame the soda.
This kind of quick bread was probably intended to be baked alongside the supper roast or casserole and eaten up at that meal—the loaves aren’t huge and there would probably be no leftovers to speak of. Time is of the essence when you’re making dinner for a hungry working family, and typical recipes I find call for a large tablespoon or more of baking soda for only two or three cups of flour. Then they cover the metallic/salt/soap flavor of the bicarbonate with extra spoonfuls of salt. The result is a high-sodium loaf that’s bound to irritate your stomach lining somewhat, even while fresh, and then will almost certainly end up pretty dry and hard, like the stereotypical box-mix Passover cakes, if you let it sit out at all.
I’m actually not sure whether the baking soda levels in today’s recipes are the same as or more exaggerated than classic ones. But considering some of the vintage recipes for similar quick breads, muffins, scones etc., from the 1930s or so, I suspect that the cheapness and novelty of baking soda and baking powder, which could replace eggs as well as yeast, made some of the recipe developers of the day more enthusiastic than they needed to be. Except, of course, if they were developing recipes for Arm&Hammer, Calumet or other brands…
Does it really need all that chemical leavening just to rise? As with tea breads, scones, and quick-mix oil- or applesauce-based cake layers, I find you can get away with a lot less than most recipes call for. Half a teaspoon of baking soda is enough for two cups (8 oz. or 240 g by weight) of flour and the rise is just fine as long as you don’t wait around before sticking the mixed dough in the oven, and you have included an acidic ingredient like yogurt, buttermilk or vinegar to activate it. Then you don’t have to compensate the taste with excess salt either. The acidic ingredients and any dairy will tenderize the crumb as well.
In any case, these problems are easy to solve without doing your head in or spending a lot of cash on specific ingredients, because the beauty of Irish soda bread is its great adaptability to what you have on hand.
This is the adaptation I made a few times in March and April of 2020, when yeast was suddenly, inexplicably, sold out in the grocery stores, eggs were scarce and flour was being snatched off the shelves too.
I used the remaining bits of regular and whole wheat I had stashed in the freezer and supplemented by grinding up some rolled oats in the coffee grinder. I even threw in a little buckwheat because I had some, and why not? But half whole wheat, half regular AP flour is fine too, and I made it again yesterday in time for supper when I didn’t have time to make a yeast-risen dough.
The bonus of cutting way back on baking soda and salt is that the flavor of the wheat comes through better, and the buttermilk or, in my what-we-have-in-the-fridge version, yogurt plus skim milk, the oil and the bit of sugar create a tender, aromatic loaf that stays tender but not crumbly and holds up to slicing the next day as well if you wrap the cooled remainder of the loaf in a bread bag.
Note for our times: I hope you are saving and reusing bread bags and other durable food-grade plastic bags like the liners in cereal boxes, or for nuts, grains or frozen vegetables and fruits (just avoid the ones from frozen fish or meat)–save yourself a bit of cash and cut back a bit on plastic waste and petroleum use at the same time. Silicone reusable bags are fine but kind of pricey, and if you’ve already bought something that comes in a nice tough bag, why not rinse and reuse it?
Some soda breads call for an egg or two. I’ve made it both ways and when I skip the egg it doesn’t taste like it’s missing anything, so I’ve left it out here.
The other factor is fat—some older recipes call for butter, which is okay if you like it, but I’d say save it for spreading on the bread, not mixing into it if you have the choice. For quick breads I always prefer to use a light-flavored polyunsaturated salad oil and not too much of it, partly out of heart health considerations (hence also the lowering of the sodium) and partly for taste and texture. I find butter makes cake layers heavy and also a bit waxy once they cool, especially if you refrigerate them or your house isn’t particularly warm, and I can’t see how quick breads would be much different. I suspect it’s also a contributing factor in the rocklike problem.
If you don’t have molasses on hand, just sugar is fine, brown or white. It will taste good. I do recommend whole wheat for this—with or without some rolled oats ground up fine in your coffee grinder. Save a few oats to roll the dough in for a rustic decorative touch and to keep it from sticking to the pan.
Irish Soda Bread, less-soda impromptu version
Makes 1 smallish but hearty loaf, about 6-8 servings, in about an hour
- 1 c. (4 oz or 120 g on a scale) whole wheat flour or a mix with some oat or buckwheat flour
- 1 c. (same 120 g) regular AP or bread flour
- ½ t. baking soda
- ¼ to ½ t. table salt
- 1 T sugar
- 1 T molasses (or brown sugar, honey, or just more granulated sugar)
- 1/4ish c. (4 T) light-flavored vegetable (salad) oil—light olive oil, grapeseed oil, canola, soy, corn, safflower etc., mostly polyunsaturated
- 1 c (240 ml) buttermilk OR dollop (2-3 T) plain yogurt plus enough milk (I use skim) to make 1 c. or 240 g total on a scale
- rolled oats for the pan
Preheat the oven to 350-375 degrees, your preference. Prepare a baking pan (pie pan, cookie sheet, pizza pan, whatever, fairly large)—lined with parchment paper or oiled tinfoil, or if it’s nonstick, wipe it with a bit of oil. Sprinkle on a handful of rolled oats in the center.
Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl, stir in the oil, and wait until the oven is heated before stirring in the buttermilk or yogurt and milk. When the oven is ready, mix in the buttermilk or yogurt and milk quickly in a few strokes, just enough to form a ball of dough. Scoop it out quickly onto the oats in the pan and roll it over gently into a nice round without pressing down—you don’t want to deflate it—so that it has oats on the bottom and a few on top. Make a few deep slashes in the top with a sharp knife, about ½-1 inch deep, a crisscross, a hashtag, your choice, but do it fast and get the pan in the oven. Don’t let the mixed dough sit around on a counter and waste the lifting power of the baking soda.
Bake for about 35-45 minutes without opening the door and check when it starts to smell good. The dough should be well risen, about double in volume, the top should be browning nicely all over, and if you tap it gently on the top or side it should sound hollow. If when you tap it the top gives, it needs more time. Give it another 10-15 minutes and check again. Take it out and let it cool down before slicing. Wrap the well-cooled remainder of the loaf tightly in a plastic bag to keep it from drying out.
Filed under: baking, breads, frugality, nutrition, Revised recipes | Tagged: baking, food, low-sodium diet, recipes |
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