[Sca-cooks] Irish Soda Bread

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Mar 18, 2010, at 11:31 AM, Kathleen A Roberts wrote:

> On Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:51:51 -0600
> Susan Lin <susanrlin at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I have a recipe from an Irish friend - I make it every year - this year my
>> sister was visiting and she made it - she was surprised that the dough was
>> sticky and the bread nice and moist - all the ones she's ever had were hard
>> and dry.  I'm sure someone would take offense that it's not a "true" Irish
>> soda bread but it came from my friend's grandma and that's good enough for
>> me!
> 
> there are several textures, sweetnesses and densities if you check around with recipes.  the soda bread and brown bread i ate in ireland differed greatly in each category. perhaps it has to due with the baker and the weather more than the humidity?

It may also be that the recipe has been altered by someone having come from Ireland to either the UK or the US... my own experience is that Irish recipes for the daily bread can afford to be dryish and lack any shortening: it's made almost daily and doesn't go stale.

But yes, sugar is a dough tenderizer and fat of any kind is a shortening, which tends, in practical terms, to limit the potential for toughness. There may also be the question of whether American AP flour is made from harder wheat than what Irish soda bread is made from in Ireland.

My experience is that the additions to the formula begin to occur once the recipe leaves Ireland. Malachy McCormick, whose judgement I trust in these matters, settled the issue pretty well for me in his books by simply providing a very straightforward, simple, and unadorned version of brown bread, and leaving all the currants, sugar, butter, and caraway seed nonsense for the white version. And a separate category for yeast-raised "batch bread", as I recall.

Adamantius






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