Irish Soda Bread
My youngest is in Melbourne these days on a study abroad program. I love hearing about her cooking and shopping adventures. She texted me that she was going to make Irish soda bread yesterday because she had buttermilk leftover from making this Ranch dressing. Coincidentally I had just made that Ranch dressing the other night and I had leftover buttermilk too. My oldest loves soda bread so I decided to make that for dinner and make a simple vegetable soup to go with it. At the last minute I spied some leftover chicken apple sausage and sliced that up to add to the soup.
Mostly Vegetable Soup
For the soup, I roasted some cut up sweet potatoes and carrots, then I sautéed a cut up onion in a bit of oil, adding a minced garlic clove near the end. I added the potatoes and carrots, plus some cut up asparagus and cabbage. Added 6 cups of chicken broth and let that simmer for 20 minutes or so. At the very end I added the cut up sausage.
Irish Soda Bread
Ingredients
- 3 3/4 cups flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 cups buttermilk or just under 2 cups milk mixed with 2 Tbs lemon juice left to sit for 5 minutes
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450F. If you have a baking stone, put that on a rack to preheat too.
- Mix the flour, salt and baking powder together.
- Add the buttermilk and stir together. The dough should be slightly soft but not too sticky or wet.
- Turn onto a floured surface (board or counter) and knead a few times. If it's too wet (as mine was because I didn't think about the fact that I added 2 Tbs lemon juice to the liquid really ), add some more flour and knead it in.
- Shape the dough into a rough circle by folding the top over and under, then pat down until it's about 1 1/2" high.
- Put the dough onto the preheated stone or onto a baking sheet.
- Slash a plus sign + into the dough, all the way to the edges. The cuts help the bread rise.
- Bake at 450 F for 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 400F and bake another 30 minutes.
- You can test to be sure it's cooked through by tapping on the bottom and listening for a hollow sound.
- Cool a bit on a wire rack and then slice.
Thanks for sharing- looks great and can’t wait to try. I love that it has so few ingredients and so few steps.