Four simple ingredients go into the basic Irish Soda Bread recipe, although you can add in other things like raisins, orange zest and such. I stuck to the basics. My dough was really wet and sticky. I added in a touch more flour when kneading the bread, but I didn't want to overdo it. I'm used to baking bread with yeast and I know that the amount of flour needed varies a bit each time you bake. This is the first time I've made a baking soda bread and I was afraid of making the bread too dry.
The bread came out nicely, but not great. On the positive side, I loved the texture. It was dense and chewy. On the negative side, it tasted a bit salty and I didn't break up the baking soda enough. There were a couple of brown spots in the finished loaf that tasted of cooked baking soda. Fortunately, we could see them and pick them out. In our family, I was the one most bothered by this. The other three liked the bread.
Will I make this again? I'm not sure. It's certainly easy enough and I can make changes to make the bread less "baking sodaish" and salty, but I enjoy working with yeast and there are so many recipes out there to try.
Looking ahead to pizza rustica.
Bummer it was salty but Im glad you enjoyed the texture! It looks great!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to make the pizza rustica either! Your bread looks fantastic,what a shame it was too salty!
ReplyDeleteMine was a bit too salty for my taste as well... I think I would cut the salt next time I make it. Maybe because my cheese also added salt? Looks great though!
ReplyDeleteToo bad it wasn't a hit. At least it was easy!
ReplyDeleteBuon Giorno Judy. Thank you for visiting and posting on my blog.
ReplyDeletePlease bake it again! It's such a pity you didn't like the taste of yours! I love mines and bake them twice a week: perfect breakfast with jam and butter! The kids love it (the adults, too!.
Question: did you really add only 1 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of baking soda? With this amount of salt I really did not have the "extra salty" taste.
All the best!
You could well be correct. I may have mixed up the amounts of salt and baking soda or done some other bone-headed thing. It's an easy enough recipe to try again and other family members enjoyed it. Looking forward to pizza rustica.
DeleteYour loaf looks good, Judy! Give the recipe a try with whole grain flour. You might like it better than white flour -- more flavor.
ReplyDeleteSorry it turned out too soda-ish. Looks great though!
ReplyDeleteSorry you had some issues. Sometimes, I will sift my flour and baking soda/ powder together and then mix them well with a fork to help break things up.
ReplyDeleteHopefully, the pizza will be more positive :-)