Soda bread recipes
Thinking about March and food leads me to thinking about St Patrick’s Day and Irish food. I cannot help but think of soda bread and other quick breads.
Quick breads
Quick breads are basically breads made without yeast, that are quick-risen by baking soda or powder or, sometimes, just the air that is beat into eggs or a dough. Irish soda bread is probably the most famous example of real bread (as opposed to muffin or tea bread) made with this method, but there are many others.
Soda bread
Baking soda reacts with a sour liquid such as buttermilk or sour milk to make a whole mess of active bubbles, which lift the dough like yeast – only quickly. For soda bread, always have your oven preheated so that it can bake as quickly as possible after mixing. Soda bread can be made from white flour, but it usually uses a rich mix of whole and white grains. I love the flavour of spelt flour and thus developed a Whole Spelt Soda Bread based on a traditional Irish soda bread.
St Patrick’s Day Soda Bread
You can use the Whole Spelt Soda Bread recipe to make a traditional St Patrick’s Day Soda Bread: replace half of the spelt flour with all-purpose flour and the remaining half with whole wheat flour (or keep it whole spelt, if you prefer). Use whole egg instead of egg white. When stirring in the liquid ingredients, add, to taste, 1 to 2 tsp/5 to 10 mL caraway seeds and 1/4 to 1/3 cup (60 to 75 mL) currants or raisins.
Other quick breads
Early settlers to North America used the whole grains they were growing to steam breads; one of the most well-known is Boston Brown Bread. I grew up in Boston, and although we were just first-generation North Americans, our family ate Boston brown bread with our baked beans just like other Bostonians – and, for that matter, Quebecers and Maritimers – were eating three or four hundred years before us. Here is the basic New England recipe; it’s easy and fun to make:
Boston Brown Bread
Grease a 15 oz coffee can well with lard, butter or shortening. Whisk together 1/2 cup/125 mL each whole wheat flour, whole rye flour and yellow cornmeal with 1 tsp/5 mL baking soda and 3/4 tsp/4 mL salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together 1 cup/250 mL buttermilk with 1/3 cup/75 mL cooking (black-strap) molasses (or fancy molasses). Stir liquid into dry mixture until combined. Scrape into can. Place greased circle of waxed or parchment paper over top of dough. Cover can with aluminium foil and tie securely (you can use rubber bands). Place on rack in covered pot. Pour boiling water to reach halfway up side of can. Bring to boil over high heat; reduce heat to low and steam, covered, for 2 hours. Let can cool on rack. Slice and serve with butter or cream cheese or as an accompaniment to baked beans.
Click to continue for corn bread basics...
