Irish Soda Bread

Variations

• Wheaten bread: in the north of Ireland this is the more common loaf and it has its own name. Swap 200g of the plain flour for wholemeal and add 50ml more buttermilk, since the bran holds water and the same quantity would leave it stiff. Far better under smoked salmon or cheese.
• Spotted dog: 100g raisins and 2 tablespoons of sugar through the dry ingredients. The sweet version, and the name comes from the raisins studding the loaf.
• Farls: instead of baking it, cut the round right through into four and cook them in a covered cast-iron pan. This is what people did without an oven, and it is the flat bread on an Irish breakfast plate.
• How it differs from a scone: same chemistry, different construction. A scone has butter rubbed into the flour to make layers, is baked as individual pieces, and usually uses baking powder, which carries its own acid. Soda bread has no fat at all, bakes as one loaf, and uses bicarbonate alone — which is exactly why the buttermilk is compulsory rather than optional.
• Against baguette and focaccia: yeast makes gas over hours, and flavour comes with those hours. Soda bread gets its gas in two minutes and gives that flavour up in exchange. What it buys is a loaf on the table ninety minutes after you decide to make one.
• Against chapati: chapati has no leavening at all and puffs because water flashes to steam. Yeast, chemical and steam — three ways to inflate a dough, three different breads.
• What to serve it with: alongside Irish stew is the standard, and it suits any thick soup — caldo verde, for one.

Tips

• You can replace the buttermilk but you cannot replace the acid. Bicarbonate of soda is a base and makes no gas by itself. Without buttermilk, stir a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar into 400ml of milk and leave it ten minutes until it curdles, or thin plain yoghurt to the same consistency. Plain milk gives you no rise and leaves unreacted soda behind, which tastes of soap (vinegar, dairy and heat).
• Always sieve the bicarb. One lump is one yellow patch and one bitter mouthful. Do not be generous with it either — soda that finds no acid does not go anywhere.
• Two minutes. From the first stir to the oven door closing is the real time limit of this recipe. Every second spent tidying the dough into a neater shape is gas leaving the bowl, which is why having the tray and the oven ready is step one rather than an afterthought.
• Do not knead. In a yeast bread, kneading builds the net that will trap gas produced later. Here the gas is already being produced, so time spent building a net is time the gas uses to escape, and all you are left with is the toughness (dough and gluten).
• A softer, lower-protein flour is better — and this is roughly why the bread exists. Wheat grown in the Irish climate is low in protein and will not build a net strong enough to hold a long yeast rise. Strong bread flour here just makes it chewy (choosing flour, flour).
• A wet, sticky dough is correct. The urge is to add flour until it stops clinging to you, and that gives a dense, crumbly loaf. Tip it out wet and flour your hands instead.
• Cut the cross deep. A shallow one closes again as it bakes and leaves the thick middle underdone. Two thirds of the way down.
• Start the oven hot. The force that lifts the remaining gas all at once comes from those first fifteen minutes. Into a lukewarm oven, the dough simply dries before it can rise (what your oven is doing).
• Knock the base. Crust colour varies with the oven; the sound tells you about the middle.
• It is a same-day loaf. With no fermentation there are none of the acids and enzymes fermentation leaves behind, so it stales noticeably within a day. There is a reason this gets baked in the morning. Yesterday's is much better cut thick, toasted and buttered (reviving leftovers).