This is an interpretation of King Arthur Flour's Irish Soda Bread recipe, which they themselves admit is not a totally traditional Irish version. Instead, they lighten it up a bit with egg and a touch of sugar and also add in currants or raisins.
I have taken this adapted version and changed it further to suit our tastes (and the fact that I don't really have white flour in the house) and called it Mid-Atlantic lest someone deride me for not being a purist.
For some reason I always think that soda bread has oats in it and so I'd decided to add some. For the white bread flour in KA's recipe, I use a mix of oat flour (simply rolled oat I put in the coffee grinder) and spelt. I also use dried tart cherries because we like those better than raisins and I never have currants around. I increased the quantity to 3/4 cup to ensure a bit of cherry in every bite.
Finally, I switched the mixing method to the food processor to make things as simple as possible.
The resulting loaf is properly craggy but also tender and tasty.
INGREDIENTS
276 g flour from hard red wheat berries
75 g flour from whole grain spelt
75 g flour from rolled or steel cut oats
3 TBSP sugar
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp table salt
4 TBSP butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 c dried tart cherries, currants or raisins
1 1/3 c buttermilk or plain yogurt or kefir or a mix of whey and milk
1 egg
DIRECTIONS
I have taken this adapted version and changed it further to suit our tastes (and the fact that I don't really have white flour in the house) and called it Mid-Atlantic lest someone deride me for not being a purist.
For some reason I always think that soda bread has oats in it and so I'd decided to add some. For the white bread flour in KA's recipe, I use a mix of oat flour (simply rolled oat I put in the coffee grinder) and spelt. I also use dried tart cherries because we like those better than raisins and I never have currants around. I increased the quantity to 3/4 cup to ensure a bit of cherry in every bite.
Finally, I switched the mixing method to the food processor to make things as simple as possible.
The resulting loaf is properly craggy but also tender and tasty.
INGREDIENTS
276 g flour from hard red wheat berries
75 g flour from whole grain spelt
75 g flour from rolled or steel cut oats
3 TBSP sugar
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp table salt
4 TBSP butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 c dried tart cherries, currants or raisins
1 1/3 c buttermilk or plain yogurt or kefir or a mix of whey and milk
1 egg
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and grease an 8 or 9 inch cake pan (to help the loaf keeps its shape). I just used a bit of cooking spray
- In the bowl of a food processor, add the flours, sugar, soda and salt and pulse to combine
- Add the butter and pulse until the butter is in pea sized lumps
- Add the dried fruit and pulse a few more times so that it makes slightly smaller pieces
- Crack the egg into the buttermilk (I just do this all in the glass measuring jug) and lightly beat
- Pour the wet mixture through the feed tube of the food processor while pulsing until combined
- Leaving the batter in the bowl, give it a stir to ensure the buttermilk isn't in the center, then let rest for 5-10 minutes. This is because whole grain flour takes longer to absorb liquid and ensures you won't end up adding too much extra flour
- At the end of the rest, turn out the batter onto a lightly floured board or counter and knead a few times, adding a bit more buttermilk if it's too crumbly to hold together or a bit more flour if it's super sticky
- Make a large round loaf and flatten slightly. Place in the cake pan and cut a large X or cross in the loaf
- Bake for 40-55 minutes or until a toothpick or cake tester comes out basically clean. Using convection it was about 45 minutes for me
- Remove loaf from oven and turn out from pan. Cool completely before slicing, as hard as that is. I like to cut into quarters, following the X and then make little wedges from there.
- Enjoy as-is or with butter or jam. Extra nice with a cup of tea
In 2021 I made them as muffins on the theory that the loaf is hard to cut and seems to dry out quickly. I think these are adorable and you get a really nice ratio of craggy to tender
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