Irish soda bread: No it does not taste like baking soda!

March 28, very late at night.

I have been working on my kitchen table on a conference paper I am scheduled to present this coming Saturday.  Before I sat down to work, I prepped and put an Irish soda bread in the oven. This is the second recipe for the month of March for Tuesdays with Dorie.  The recipe was due last Tuesday but I was traveling and could not bake it on time.  Better late than never, right? So, here I am trying to catch up with the rest of the bakers of TWD. Luckily this is such an easy recipe that I got it done with the snap of a finger.

The recipe has only four ingredients; flour, salt, baking soda, and buttermilk. All I did was to mix the ingredients with a fork to make the dough. Then I kneaded the dough for a minute or two and baked the dough in a 375 degree oven for 50 minutes. Super simple.  The original recipe does not have any but I added some raisins to my bread. You can find the recipe here and here.

The first time I had Irish soda bread was in Dublin in a traditional restaurant called Gallagher’s Boxty House.  It was June 2011. David and I were in Dublin for work but had some extra time set aside to see the city. Dublin is a very live-able, lovable, picturesque city. It has the charm of old European cities with gorgeous old buildings, and gothic churches around each corner.  We love walking a ton when we travel and we tried to do so in Dublin as well. The only handicap was the weather. The sun seemed to be undecided as to whether to shine or not and dark clouds intent on sabotaging our long walks around the neighborhoods. Did I mention it was mid-June? Not a time when I have tolerance for gloomy chilly weather. I want to be hot in June, want to start sweating in June and bicker about the heat -a little- in June. Was not possible in Dublin. (To be fair we had one full day of sunshine and no rain.)

Anyway, what was I saying? Yes, the soda bread. I did not have high expectations for Irish food before our trip to Dublin. You know, I expected beef stews and various potato dishes in typical Irish restaurants. Well, I was not too far off. The menu at Gallagher Boxty House mostly consisted of stews, potato pancakes, and sausages. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how tasty some of the dishes were. The stew was very homey, heart warming with a thick flavorful broth and cotton soft pieces of meat.  It complimented the rainy weather absolutely perfectly. I tried potato pancakes (Boxty) and really loved them too. With my stew I had a couple slices of Irish soda bread. This was the first time I tasted soda bread and I thought that it was just ok. It tasted too much like baking soda for my liking. Thus, when I heard that we were baking soda bread for TWD, I was not all that excited. What did I know?

The bread I baked is very different than the one I tried in Dublin. The biggest difference is that mine does not taste  at all like baking soda. Maybe traditional Irish soda bread is supposed to taste like baking soda. I do not know. I sure am glad my loaf does not taste like that. It has a crusty golden skin. When you knock on it (go ahead and do it, if you bake one) it has the hollow sound of a well-baked bread. When you cut through it a wonderful smell emanates from where the knife tears the bread.  Should I go on? Please try baking one for yourself. You will not regret.

Here is a quick iphone shot of my bread:

Irish Soda Bread