I have a love-hate relationship with Irish Soda Bread. First attempt may be still buried in the yard at our old house, potentially being mistaken for a rock. After many attempts to cut it, I dropped it off our back deck in frustration.
My good friend, Mary Shriane, teaches classes on soda bread annually. Dozens gather to take her class just a few short weeks before the Soda Bread Contest at T.S. McHugh's, happening this weekend. She makes it look so simple, and thankfully, I've gotten better at it! I still have yet to win anything over the past 15 years making bread, but I am also competing against women who were taught at their grandma's knee over a turf fire in the motherland.
Give it a try!
4 cups flour (apparently best use GOOD and FRESH bread flour)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda (another mess up of mine - make sure it's fresh)
1 teaspoon sugar
2 cups sour milk or buttermilk
Preheat oven to 350, sift dry ingredients into a large bowl. Scooping up handfuls of the mixture, allow it to drop into the bowl. This action aerates the flour. Add enough of the milk to form a soft dough. Working quickly, knead the dough lightly. (Too much kneading will produce the Irish call "hard as the hobs o'hell.)
Form a round loaf about the size of your fist. Place it on a baking sheet which has been lightly floured and score a cross on the top of the loaf with a knife that has been dipped in flour. Immediately bake the loaf on the top rack of the preheated oven for 30-45 minutes, until the loaf sounds hollow when you rap it with your knuckles.
These directions are just about as crazy as my mother-in-laws addressing Christmas cards to her old neighbors back home ...
Mrs. Frances O'Leary
Widow of the Baker O'Leary
2 houses down from Mrs. Donnelly's house with the big stone in the yard
Athlone, Co. Westmeath
Ireland.
Good luck!
