TEAM Eats: Irish Soda Bread
Thank you, Jessica! Brenda and I have been corresponding ever since! We have become friends via email and have discovered…
I love Irish food. It’s hearty and wonderful, especially on a cold wet day. In Ireland, traditional food consists of meat (beef, ham, chicken or lamb), root vegetables (potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips, onions) cabbage, oats and bread — lots of bread! Almost every food order in Ireland comes with “brown bread” also known as “soda bread.”
It’s heartier and not fluffy like white bread. It’s nutty and full and tummy-filling! An older woman gave me this recipe after I complimented her on the bread she made for a ladies’ brunch. She said, “It’s just a regular brown bread,” but I don’t think so! I have had a lot of them, and this is the best one! It is an easy recipe. Try it out for yourself!
Ingredients:
1¾ cups wheaten flour
2¾ cups sifted unbleached flour
½ cup of raw unsalted pumpkin seeds
½ cup of flaxseed
½ cup of sunflower seeds
1 cup of oat bran or wheat bran
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking soda
25 oz. buttermilk
Butter, jam or honey to put on bread
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 ͦF.
2. Cut parchment paper to size and line 2 – 1 lb. loaf tins. (Trust me, this is a good idea if you want the loaf to come out of the tin nicely.)
3. In your large bowl, mix together wheaten flour, sifted unbleached flour, raw unsalted pumpkin seeds, flaxseed, sunflower seeds, oat bran (or wheat bran), salt and baking soda
4. Pour buttermilk over the dry mixture and mix very quickly.
Tip: The trick is in your speed. Mix all your dry ingredients together, have your oven fully preheated and your baking tins lined and ready to go, because as soon as you add the buttermilk, it will begin to proof, and the rising will begin.
5. Transfer into the lined baking tins.
6. Place in oven and bake for 40 minutes. Check with a toothpick. The tops will be gloppy. That’s part of the fun of it.
7. Place loaves on cooling racks and tip them on their sides. Let them cool like this for about 15 minutes. Then remove from tins.
8. Enjoy with butter and jam or honey. This bread is also lovely with Irish stew or soup.
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Always wonder about the real thing. Thanks for sharing!
Dear Brenda,
Thanks for the lovely recipe! The other recipe for Irish Soda Bread I have comes from my uncle in Baltimore, Ireland. We plan to visit him in the spring, and I was wondering if we could pay you a visit? My husband and I recently retired early due to a back injury, and we are looking for a place of ministry something like yours; we both enjoy and have taught both Sunday School and children’s choir, and we both have done public speaking. We sing and play guitar and dulcimer. We would love to correspond with you and your husband on this. We are currently training through Evangelism Explosion and enjoying sharing our faith.
We are members of a conservative Presbyterian church, both with reformed Baptist leanings and backgrounds. We hope also to visit missionary friends in the UK with World Witness.
Marianne Miller, Tennessee, USA
Hi Marianne,
I will send your contact information to Brenda and we will get back to you via email. Thanks for reaching out!
Thank you, Jessica! Brenda and I have been corresponding ever since! We have become friends via email and have discovered much in common between Brenda and Bruce and my husband Dan and me, besides our love for Christ. You have been a great help to all four of us!