St. Patrick’s Day is a party day enjoyed by Irish–and would-be Irish–from coast to coast. At the core of the celebration is satisfying, easy-to-prepare fare. It’s food with an inviting, simple quality that is uniquely its own.
Soda bread is as essential as the corned beef and cabbage. This warm, rustic bread is found in almost every home and restaurant in Ireland.
And it’s no wonder. It has a delicious, distinctive taste that’s quite unlike yeast breads: velvety on the inside with a thin, flour-dusted crunchy crust on the outside. A cross is cut into the bread before it bakes. As it bakes, the slash marks spread into wide gashes, creating four knobs on top of the loaves.
Serve the bread warm, spread with a little butter, as a breakfast or teatime treat. For party fare, serve open-face, appetizer-size sandwiches made with thin slices of soda bread topped with smoked salmon. Garnish with drained capers or a small sprig of fresh dill. Butter on the bread is optional.
It only takes 10 to 15 minutes to make the dough and form it into ready-for-the-oven rounds. The dough can be made with wheat or white flour. I like the texture of white flour augmented with a little toasted wheat germ. I always add caraway seeds, but you can use currants, dried cranberries or golden raisins plumped in a little warm water or liquor and drained before use. Some folks like to add oatmeal and either white or brown sugar.
IRISH SODA BREAD
Preparation time: 20 minutes minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes
Yield: 2 loaves; 24 to 28 slices
Adapted from “The Best of Gourmet, Featuring the Flavors of England, Ireland and Scotland” (Random House).
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional flour for sprinkling onto dough
1/2 cup toasted wheat germ
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
3/4 cup currants, optional
1 3/4 to 2 cups low-fat cultured buttermilk
1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Stir flour, wheat germ, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add butter and toss to coat with flour. With fingertips, blend butter into flour until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add caraway seeds and currants, if using; stir to combine.
2. Stir in 1 3/4 cups buttermilk, adding more if necessary to moisten dough evenly. Do not overwork dough.
3. Knead dough on floured surface with floured hands, 1 to 2 minutes, sprinkling with additional flour to prevent sticking. Divide dough in half. Place dough on baking sheet or jelly roll pan lighlty sprinkled with flour; pat dough out into two 5-inch rounds. Sprinkle rounds lightly with flour and spread out dough with fingers. Cut shallow X on top of each round with sharp knife.
4. Bake bread until golden brown, about 35 minutes. To test for doneness, tap on bottom of loaf; it should sound hollow. Cool on rack.
Nutrition information per slice:
Calories … 115 Fat … 4 g Cholesterol … 10 mg Sodium … 205 mg
