Oct 29 2008
Traditional Irish Brown Soda Bread
I’m a firm believer that Ireland has the potential to be up there among the world’s “Culinary Capitals”. In fact, I’d suggest that the reputations of other “Culinary Capital” countries are as much due to some clever marketing than anything else. This is a common rant of mine (especially after a few pints), so I’ll save it for another day, but I challenge you to show me a better lunch on a cold, wet day than a bowl of hot soup (or chowder), served with fresh homemade brown soda bread, and washed down with a pint of stout.
So with that in mind, here’s a recipe for Irish brown soda bread. It’s a slight adaptation from the one written by Paul Hollywood in his book 100 Great Breads
What you need:
- 250g Strong White Flour
- 250g Wholemeal Flour (You can use 300g wholemeal to 200g strong white if you want. More flavour, but might be a bit crumbly)
- 300ml Milk (or 270ml milk and 30ml buttermilk)
- 40g Caster Sugar
- 20g Baking Powder
- 75g Butter, Softened (not melted - it has to coat the flour by rubbing in)
- A handful of porridge oats (optional)
What to do:
- Pre-heat the oven to 200o C
- Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl. Squeeze the dough between your fingers until all the flour has been picked up. Mix thoroughly to form a soft dough.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and shape into a ball.
- Flatten the ball of dough to make a disk (about 2 inches thick or thereabouts).
- Cut a cross in the top with a sharp knife. Stick a fork in each quarter to let the fairies escape. NB: Don’t mock - this is important.
- Lightly oil or butter a baking tray and place the dough on the tray.
- Sprinkle some porridge oats on top of the dough to add a bit of flavour, or just lightly flour it.
- When the oven is up to temperature, bang it in. Bake for 30 minutes.
- Allow the bread to cool on a wire rack before cutting.
The food in Ireland is crap. You very likely haven’t spent time outside the island.
Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Austria…dream on…
Hi Nick, thanks for visiting the site. I have in fact spent time in all of those countries, and a few more besides.
I doubt by your tone that I’m going to convince you that the food in Ireland is anything but crap, but for other readers, I should probably explain why I’m defending Irish food.
Certainly, there is some bad food to be had in Ireland. But let’s not generalise - this is also true for any other country in the world (including France, Italy and Spain). There are excellent places to eat in all of these countries, and there are dismally poor ones aswell. Some of the poorest excuses for restaurant food I’ve ever eaten have been in Germany, Austria and Italy. I have eaten some very fine meals in these countries too - just as I have in Ireland.
Here are a few points I’d like to make about Irish food:
1) Our dairy produce is the best in the world, bar none. We export millions of euro worth of our milk and butter to France. There’s every possibility that the wonderful Béarnaise sauce you had on your steak in that Parisian restaurant, was made with butter produced in Nenagh (Co. Tipperary).
2) Our beef and lamb is also of the finest quality. We also export a large portion of our beef and lamb to France. So that steak that I mentioned above might even have been Irish too.
3) We have many fine fresh fruit and vegetables that grow here natively. What doesn’t grow here (due to unfavourable weather), we import. Is that somehow inferior? Should we feel guilty about that? Let’s not forget that the Italians didn’t know what a tomato was until the Spanish brought it back from South America in the late 17th Century. Even then, it was just used as table decoration - the thought of eating it didn’t occur to Florentines till later. Now the entire Italian cuisine is based on the tomato. If they can build a strong culinary tradition on imported food, why can’t we?
4) We are an island nation. We are surrounded by a bounty of the finest, freshest seafood in Europe. Do you like shellfish? Ever had langoustines in France, Italy or Spain? They’re very fond of them in those countries. You know langoustines? Also called “Dublin Bay Prawns”? Let’s look at Spanish cuisine for a moment. It’s based heavily (almost entirely in fact) on fish and seafood. Doesn’t it strike you as odd that they come all the way to Irish waters to take our fish? Our Naval Service goes to great pains to stop them illegally taking fish from Irish waters. Our Air Corps even bought a plane (a Spanish one, ironically) to spot Spanish trawlers. I guess those Spanish fishermen just appreciate quality seafood.
Now, I didn’t say that Ireland was the best food country. I have the deepest respect for French and Italian cuisine. I said we have the potential to be up there with them. My point is simply that things are changing. The standard is improving. The greasy spoons are being replaced by restauants and cafes run by Irish (and immigrant) chefs, who know what they are doing and care about good food. Our excellent produce, augmented by quality imports, is being used to greater effect than ever before. Even in amateur and home cooking circles, there is greater interest in cooking techniques, and trying new things. The slow food movement is active in protecting endangered foods and traditional ingredients and techniques in the face of commercialism. I think that our food culture is on the way up. Certainly there will be plenty of influences from other cultures in our food, but that gives us lots of variety. That’s not a bad thing, is it?
We can all look to these other foodie countries and lament that the grass is greener, but I think it’s pretty green here too.
LOL!!!! just goes to show, trolling gets you nowhere outside of the world of warcraft :p
I have had brutal irish food, but I have also had the finest Irish food ever and thats doesnt mean your typical beacon and cabbage!! anything produced and grown and cooked in Ireland means Irish food, and most of the best food iv ever eaten is here at home!
Iv eaten in Prague, and I have to say I HATED their food, but adored their country, Iv eaten in Spain, and couldnt stand their food either outside of patatis bravas, and thats just like a bag of chips!!! my favorite food while I was in their country was Italy, but like Jd said, iv eaten utter tripe their too, it depends on the chef, the place u eat and the produce, and Ireland does infact win hands down for all of the above!
Jd is one the most well traveled men iv ever known, he knows what his tastebuds like, and id trust his tastebuds!….. no wait that sounded all wrong :p
anyway thats not what this post is about…. My favorite thing in the whole world is thick beyond thick IRISH farmhouse veg soup with thick cut IRISH brown soda bread covered in the finest IRISH salty whole fat butter! nothing like it on a cold day
JD,
You’ve made my Christmas! My mother has been asking for YEARS for a brown bread recipe and I think I can make this in her kitchen. Every time she comes to Ireland, she tried to bring some brown bread back with her and I’m happy to find a recipe like this that a bread-phobic like me can do!
Considering my last bread-making attempt produced dwarf bread (Anhk-Morpork’s finest!), I can’t wait to try this soon…
Thx!!
LOL I just noticed about letting the fairies escape :p hahahaha!! brilliant
JD
What a wonderful response to unwarranted ridicule of the wonderful produce which abounds in Ireland. Believe me, I would love to be able to buy some of the wonderful cheese, bread, meats etc. etc. that are unavailable in Australia. Don’t get me wrong, the food here can be wonderful, as it can be anywhere when the finest ingredients are used, but sometimes I would love some of the fabulous fish available from Morgan’s in Omeath, Co Louth - amazing!!
Have a great Christmas. Will be a hot one here in Oz.
We just got back from Ireland last week and we had fabulous food every meal every day.
We fell in love with the homemade brown bread and trying to find “brown flour” has been a challenge. No such thing sold in Houston. The Bed & Breakfasts we stayed in served wonderful breakfasts and every restaurant served delicious meals. Needless to say I came back a few pounds more than when I went.
One more note: The Irish people were so wonderful and the country was so clean and gorgeous. I would return in a heartbeat.
Just came across this page by chance, I have been to America twice, Spain loads of times, England and a few more countries also and I can honestly say that the food here in Ireland is well up there with the best of them!!! We were so dissappointed with the food in the States, just couldn’t believe the so called “breakfast”, all we could mostly get was pre-cooked inferior processed food. The other thing that really puzzles me is why it is impossible to get real fresh cream in deserts etc. outiside of Ireland. I enquired about this in Spain recently and was told that because the weather was so warm fresh cream would go sour!!!! Hello……. did they ever hear of fridges? I know some restaurants here at home are not up to scratch and in these recessionary times are still very overpriced but if you shop around you will find some brilliant eateries from coffee shops to high class restaurants at reasonable prices. And as an aside to all that remember there is nothing wrong with bacon and cabbage or Irish stew either and of course there is nothing like a good Irish coffee to finish off a great meal, all other countries have their own native dishes on the menus so why should we be embarrissed of giving people the choice of sampling ours? Happy eating everybody.
Irish Mary and proud of it
Hi Melna
Delighted you enjoyed Ireland so much. If you look for Whole Wheat Flour it should be the same thing - like this.
Hope that works for you!
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.