Traditional Irish Brown Bread

Submitted by littleturtle

"traditional brown soda bread"

 

• Ready In: 50mins
• Ingredients: 5
• Serves: 16

ingredients

• 4 cups coarse ground whole wheat flour
• 4 cups white flour
• 3 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 3 -4 cups low-fat cultured buttermilk

directions

1. Preheat oven to 475F.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
3. Make a well in the center and add some buttermilk.
4. Work the mixture with your hand until the dough is soft and not too sticky.
5. On a floured surface, knead into a circular shape about three inches thick.
6. Bake for 20 minutes and then turn oven down to 400F; bake for another 20 minutes.
7. Bread should sound hollow when you tap on it when fully cooked.

Reviews

[Daniel B.]

To me, this is the authentic irish soda bread that our ancestors made in their hearth ovens, in their isolated houses and ate to sustain themselves 'day in and day out' durig the Great Hunger.. Sure todays many versions are sweetened like cakes with raisins, honey, mollasses, sugar, etc., Why heck add a couple more ingredients and you can turn the batter into cookie dough..but back then, people were starving, and this was a bare minimum bread that didnt need to wait to rise, could still sustain you, and it kept you feeling fuller... longer. It was survival food. So next time youre celebrating your Irish heritage.. sure, make the nice tastey bread that your mom or grandmom made, celebrate and enjoy it.. but also for our history sake, make a simple hunger bread to remember what our people went through and what forced us to come to America..!!

 

[Maine Sailor Chef]

This is nice for sure but I think it lacks a little "umph". I think I'd add steel cut oats, here I addes just a bit of regular oats and used organic flours. Yea, needs steel cut oats and a bit more buttermilk or soak the oats maybe.. Looks pretty ;-)

 

[Nose5775]

I love bread, and I like my bread wheaty, dense, and crusty, so I figured this would be a good recipe for me. I will probably try this again, and I expect it will be better as I adapt my technique. I used the full 4 cups of buttermilk, and not only was my dough not sticky, it was pretty dry and floury. I don't know if this was my kneading technique, dry weather, the fact that I haven't made bread in a while and so don't have any intuitive sense of proportion, or what. I found that the finished bread has a soft, flavorful interior that is wonderful when complemented by lots of fresh sweet butter and some Irish cheddar. The crust, though, is really thick, hard, and not very tasty. I will try to experiment with this again. Note: this recipe is not joking about a "large bowl." I used a huge tublike bowl I usually use for rinsing large quantities of greens, and that worked well.