Irish Soda Bread: the story of how I won a competition and what I learned

So last weekend I participated in my first ever amateur baking competition at the Irish American Heritage Museum in Albany and... drumroll... I WON!

The competition had three categories (traditional white, traditional brown, and untraditional/family recipe) and 52 loaves were submitted.  I submitted loaves for all three (which required that I bake 6 loaves of bread) and I won the 1st place for prize for traditional white soda bread

Here I am receiving my prize:  Irish Soda Bread competition winners and here is an post about it from the local newspaper blog, table hopping.  (my claim to to fame!)

Here are the award winning loaves before they were packed up to go to the museum:

In preparing for this competition, I did a ton of research and read a ton of recipes and baked a LOT of Irish Soda Bread (15 loaves total!).  What follows is a description of what I learned, as well as some of the recipes and techniques I recommend trying.

What is Traditional Irish Soda Bread?
 
Although when most people think of Irish soda bread they think of the cakey bread that is studded with raisins and caraway seeds and is sold throughout America on St. Patrick's Day, real traditional Irish soda bread only contains these four ingredients: flour, baking soda (or bread soda), salt, and buttermilk (or sour milk). 

The Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread has a lot of helpful and interesting information about traditional soda bread and its history.  It strongly admonishes anything with extra ingredients (raisins, sugar, eggs, butter) as NOT traditional soda bread.  If it has raisins, it is what is known as "spotted dog" or "railway cake."

The surprise for me is that, as good as the more cake-like soda bread recipes are, I really LIKE traditional soda bread.  It is dense and has a pure soda taste that is wonderful toasted with butter and/or jam and is a perfect compliment to a hearty soup, stew, or chili.  I think I will be making traditional Irish soda bread many more times in the future than the untraditional cake-like version.

Tips on Baking Traditional Irish Soda Bread
 
Although traditional Irish soda bread only contains the four basic ingredients listed above, and the competition rules were strict that no other ingredients can be added, there is still a lot of skill to making a good traditional soda bread.  The quality of the bread will depend on the quality of the ingredients and how similar they are to Irish ingredients, the measurements, and how the bread is cooked.

A note on flour:  For my award-winning soda bread, I used half unbleached all-purpose flour and half white pastry flour.  Pastry flour (or cake flour) is softer and is more similar to flour used in Ireland.  You can find pastry flour at whole foods stores or co-ops that have bulk items.  Odlums is a distributor of Irish flour and if you have access to that, that is probably even better.  Although my traditional wheat bread did not win, I think using part (or entirely) whole wheat pastry flour will result in a more traditional brown bread. 

Measurements:  Recipes vary in their proportions of flour, salt, baking soda, and buttermilk.  I used the measurements given on the website above by the Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread (see recipes below).

Handling:  It is important not to over handle or knead the dough.  The dry ingredients should be lightly mixed together, and then add the buttermilk slowly,  mixing with your fingers or a wooden spoon until a sticky dough forms.  Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead just a couple times until the dough is cohesive.  Over-kneading the dough allows the gas to escape and will result in a tough bread.

Heat and cooking method:  In my experience, a hotter oven is better for traditional soda bread and, as suggested by the Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread, baking the bread in a cake pan covered with another cake pan for the first part of cooking, and then removing the top to finish the baking process, works wonderfully.  I think this results in a moister bread.  It also more closely mimicks the "Bastible" pot that was traditionally used back in the day in Ireland.  I also tried using a dutch oven for the bread and this worked well too, except for some reason (i'm not sure why - something about the heat distribution) the cake pan method seemed to work a little better.

Preparing ahead: Soda bread, I'm afraid, is not one of those things you can prepare ahead.  Most soda bread dries out extremely fast and is not that great the next day.  Traditional soda bread seems to keep a little longer than the untraditional recipes, still tasting wonderful toasted for a couple days after baking.

Recipes:

Traditional White Irish Soda Bread:

4 cups white flour (2 cups all-purpose + 2 cups white pastry flour, if you have access to it)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
14 oz buttermilk or sour milk

Instructions: Preheat the oven to 425 F.   Lightly grease a 9 inch cake pan.  In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients.  Add buttermilk and mix with fingers or wooden spoon until a sticky dough forms.  Turn onto a floured surface and knead once or twice, just until cohesive.  Pat into a flat round and cut a 1/2 inch deep cross on the top with a sharp floured knife, going over the edges of the dough, to "let the fairies out."  Cover the pan with another pan and bake for 30 minutes.  Remove cover and bake another 15 minutes.  The dough will sound hollow when tapped on the bottom if it is done.  Cover with a tea towel (you can sprinkle some water on the towel to keep bread moist).  Eat immediately!

Traditional Brown Irish Soda Bread:

4 cups whole wheat flour (half whole wheat pastry flour, if you have access to it)
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
14 oz buttermilk or sour milk

Instructions: Follow instructions for traditional white Irish soda bread (immediately above).

Untraditional Irish Soda Bread Recipes

Over the last several weeks, I also attempted several different recipes for untraditional Irish soda breads.  These recipes are as varied as you can imagine -- most have raisins or currants, some have caraway seeds, most have sugar (or honey), many have butter (as little as 2 Tbs and as much as 1 stick), some have an egg, some have 2 eggs, many have baking powder (some have cream of tartar), some have yogurt or sour cream, some even have orange or lemon zest or a bit of cardamom.  The variations are endless!  39 loaves of untraditional/"family recipe" breads were submitted at the competition last week and no two loaves looked alike.

So clearly I did not try all the variations.   Here are a few I tried and liked:

James Beard's Irish Soda Bread
(adapted by me as follows...)

James Beard's recipe is almost traditional, except for the addition of 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1 tablespoon of sugar. 
 
I made a few changes, namely, adding raisins once (currants another time) and combining some yogurt with the buttermilk to make it thicker (which I read somewhere was more similar to buttermilk found in Ireland).  I also used pastry flour rather than regular flour, but regular flour would be fine here if you do not have pastry flour. 

Ingredients:

3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup white pastry flour
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 T. sugar
1 1/4 cup buttermilk mixed with 1/2 cup whole milk plain yogurt
1 cup raisins (or currants)

Instructions:  Preheat oven to 425 F.  Grease a dutch oven or pie pan.  Soak raisins in hot water for 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, mix dry ingredients.  Combine yogurt and buttermilk and add to flour mixture until sticky dough forms.  Knead gently on floured surface a few times until dough is cohesive.  Pat dough into a 9 inch round, cut a cross on top with a sharp floured knife, and place dough in pan and bake covered for 30 minutes.  Remove cover and bake another 15 minutes.  Bread is done when dough sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

My Irish Soda Bread

After playing with a number of recipes, I sorta combined what I liked of them to come up with this version, which is what I submitted at the competition.

4 cups white pastry flour
4 T. sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
4 T. cold unsalted butter, cut up into 1/2 inch pieces
9-12 oz buttermilk + 3-4 oz plain whole milk yogurt
1 cup of currants 

Instructions: Preheat oven to 400 F.  Grease a baking sheet.  Soak currants in hot water for 10 minutes while you prepare other ingredients.  Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Using fingertips, pinch in the butter until a coarse crumbs form.  Drain currants and add to flour mixture.  Mix to evenly distrubte.  Whisk together buttermilk and yogurt and add slowly to dry ingredients, until a sticky dough forms (it should not be too sticky to handle).  Turn onto a floured surface and gently form into a flat round, approximately 9 inches in diameter.  Cut a cross in the top with a floured sharp kitchen knife.  Place on greased baking sheet and bake for 35-40 minutes, until golden brown and a  toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 

Other recipes to try:  

This recipe from epicurious was good but a little too cake-like for my personal tastes.  I made it with part whole wheat flour and part white flour and decreased the sugar to 2/3 of a cup: 

Irish Soda Bread with Raisins and Caraway

I also intend to try this recipe but haven't yet, as it is the one from Cook's Illustrated and is also featured on smitten kitchen: Irish soda bread scones

Enjoy!!

Carrot Walnut Currant No-Knead Bread

This is one of my favorite recipes from Jim Lahey's book.  Fresh squeezed carrot juice (I buy organic carrot juice and use that but it would be even more awesomer to make your own!) is subtle and it combines with the currants and walnuts for a rich flavor that is unusual and so satisfying.  It is also crusted with cumin seeds which adds another something something. LOVE IT. 

Here's what ya need:

3 cups bread flour
1 1/4 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups freshly squeezed carrot juice
3/4 cup currants
3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
additional flour for dusting
1 T. cumin seeds

Here's what you do (so simple!). Combine flour, salt and dry yeast, then add carrot juice...

Mix that together with a wooden spoon or your fingers

Add nuts and currants.  Mix that in.

Let dough sit in a warm, draft-free spot (to the extent you have one in winter!) and loosely cover it with plastic wrap or a dish towel, for 12 to 18 (ideally 18) hours until the surface is dotted with bubbles and it has more than doubled in size, like so:

Turn it out onto a generously floured work surface, using a bowl scraper or rubber spatula to get it out in one piece.  Using lightly floured hands, or a bowl scraper, lift the edges of the dough in toward the center.  Nude and tuck in the edges of the dough to make it round, like so:

Place a kitchen towel or tea towel on your work surface, generously (really generously!!) dust it with flour and sprinkle on the cumin seeds.  Gently place the dough on the towel, seam side down (so it is being coated in cumin seeds).  Dust top with flour and loosely fold ends of towel over the dough to cov er it and place it in a warm draft free spot to rise for another 1 to 2 hours.

Half an hour before the end of the second rise, put a covered 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 quart heavy pot or dutch oven on the center rack of the oven and preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  Using pot holders, carefully remove preheated pot from the oven and uncover it. Unfold the tea towel and quickly but gently invert the dough into the pot, seam side up.  Cover pot and bake for 25 minutes.  Remove lid and bake until bread is a deep chestnut color but not burnt, 15 to 20 minutes more.  Use a heatproof spatula or pot holders to carefully lift the bread out of the pot and place it onto a rack to cool completely. 

 Slice and enjoy!

Sour Cream-Blueberry Bread

So I love love love banana bread.  Really any breakfast bread or muffin or scone, but especially good banana bread.  This recipe (from Williams-Sonoma) just took banana bread and like ELEVATED IT.  Just when I did not think that was possible.  Yes.  It has banana.  And blueberries.  And pecans, man.  And sour cream.  This is like really really good stuff.   I could write an ode to this bread.  Oh bread of banana and blueberry and pecans... how you make me long for you... (hahah OK enough).  Here's the deal with this bread.

You need this:

2 medium ripe bananas
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1 heaping cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 cup chopped pecans


You do this:

Preheat the oven to 350 and grease a 9 X 5 inch loaf pan.

Mash up the bananas with a fork and measure out 1 cup.

Melt the butter.

Sift together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, baking soda).

Whisk together the eggs,  sour cream, vanilla, cooled butter, and mashed bananas.

Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.

Mix until just combined.

Add the blueberries (if using frozen, toss in a bit of flour first so they don't clump)...

And the pecans, and fold in gently.

Pour batter into greased loaf pan.

Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (this took about 70 minutes in my oven).

Cool in pan on rack for 30 minutes.   Run a butter knife carefully along edges of loaf, and turn loaf out onto rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Delicious Braided Challah Bread Recipe

OMG!  I don't know what to say.  I have always loved Challah but I have never made it before and never had it straight out of the oven.  This was as good as Challah from a Jewish bakery in Brooklyn and I didn't have to leave Voorheesville!  Amazing.  I got it from the smitten kitchen blog which I just love.  She is great.  The only thing I botched a little was the braiding part... but it didn't matter.  I will perfect it next time.  Let's make it!

Time: about 1 hour, plus 2 1/2 hours’ rising
Yield: 2 loaves (I halved the recipe to make one loaf)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 packages active dry yeast (1 1/2 tablespoons or 3/8 ounces or 11 grams)
1 tablespoon (13 grams) plus 1/2 cup (100 grams) sugar
1/2 cup (118 ml) olive or vegetable oil, plus more for greasing the bowl
5 large eggs
1 tablespoon (14 grams) table salt
8 to 8 1/2 cups (1000 to 1063 grams) all-purpose flour

Optional:
1/2 cup raisins (about 70 grams) per challah, if using, plumped in hot water and drained
Poppy or sesame seeds for sprinkling.

NOTE: The recipe above is for 2 loaves.  I made one and the pictures below just show one loaf.  Next time I will probably make two... if I can find people to eat it! 

1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 tablespoon (13 grams) sugar in 1 3/4 cups lukewarm water.

 2. Whisk oil into yeast, then beat in 4 eggs, one at a time, with remaining sugar and salt. Gradually add flour. When dough holds together, it is ready for kneading. (You can also use a mixer with a dough hook for both mixing and kneading, but be careful if using a standard size KitchenAid–it’s a bit much for it, though it can be done.)

3. Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth, or knead in kitchen aid mixer, like I did. Clean out bowl and grease it, then return dough to bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, until almost doubled in size. Dough may also rise in an oven that has been warmed to 150 degrees then turned off.

It will look like this:

4.  Punch down dough, cover and let rise again in a warm place for another half-hour.

After second rise:

5.  (At this point, you can knead the raisins into the challah, if you’re using them, before forming the loaves.) To make a 6-braid challah, either straight or circular, take half the dough and form it into 6 balls.

6.  With your hands, roll each ball into a strand about 12 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide. Place the 6 in a row, parallel to one another. Pinch the tops of the strands together.

7.  Here are the instructions for braiding it... As I said, I couldn't really follow it but it turned out OK... I would have liked it prettier and will try again next time! 

Move the outside right strand over 2 strands. Then take the second strand from the left and move it to the far right. Take the outside left strand and move it over 2. Move second strand from the right over to the far left. Start over with the outside right strand. Continue this until all strands are braided. For a straight loaf, tuck ends underneath. For a circular loaf, twist into a circle, pinching ends together. Make a second loaf the same way. Place braided loaves on a greased cookie sheet with at least 2 inches in between.

8. Beat remaining egg and brush it on loaves. Either freeze breads or let rise another hour.  SAVE EGG WASH if you are baking immediately -- you will paint it again before it goes in the oven!

After rising another hour:

9. If baking immediately, preheat oven to 375 degrees and brush loaves again.  Sprinkle bread with seeds, if using. If freezing, remove from freezer 5 hours before baking.

10. Bake in middle of oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until golden. (If you have an instant read thermometer, you can take it out when it hits an internal temperature of 190 degrees.) Cool loaves on a rack.

Enjoy!!

-- Anya