Irish Soda Bread

In honour of Mum’s arrival we made some Traditional Irish Soda Bread. My sister e-mailed the recipe to me recently and I wasn’t sure if I could get all the ingredients here, so I’ve had it lying around for a while.

Down the road from where my parents live in Dublin is a fantastic restaurant called Rolys Bistro. We’ve been going there since 1992 for family meals and one of the lovely parts about the meal was always the beautiful breads they serve while you peruse the menu. In fact their breads are so popular that they now sell them over the counter. In 2002 Colin O’Daly and Paul Cartwright, the chefs at Rolys, released a cookbook which my Mum and sister both have. This recipe for brown soda bread comes from that cook book.

It turned out so well which was a relief since the recipe actually makes 2 loafs. This is definitely one of the foods I miss the most from home. One of my ideal breakfasts is Irish brown bread with butter and marmalade and a big mug of tea. The mug of tea seems to be a recurring theme here at berrysimple.

Roly’s Soda Bread

850ml buttermilk
375g strong baker’s flour
250g coarse wholemeal
80g pinhead oatmeal
80g oat flakes
80g wheat germ
20g brown sugar
10g salt
30g bread soda (bicarb soda)
10g melted butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon caraway seeds (I substituted with sunflower seeds)
2 teaspoons treacle

Preheat Oven 200C
Sieve bread soda and white flour then mix in all dry ingredients. Mix with hands.
Add egg and treacle mix with hands then add buttermilk.
Mixture will be very wet leave for 5 mins for bread soda to work.
pour into two buttered loaf tins and heat in centre of oven for 60-90 mins.

After a few tries of this recipe I found that it works best in my oven when I covered it loosely with tinfoil after 40 mins to avoid top burning.
I wrap mine in tea towel and place on wire tray to cool - my Nana’s trick to avoid a hard crust.