Looking for a soda bread recipe

drn987

I've been trying to make some brown soda bread but it always seems to come out crumbly. By crumbly, I mean that when it's cooled and I go to slice it, it breaks up too easily making it very difficult to slice.

Does anyone have any good recipes that are solid and non-crumbly?

Dizzyblonde

For basic recipes like that I always use www.odlums.ie

Do you wrap your bread in a clean dry teatowel when you take it out of the oven and leave it until it cools? That usually works for me.

Zuiderzee

Simples



Ingredients
450g (1lb) plain white flour, or wholemeal if you want a brown loaf.
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baxitartar
1 teaspoon bread soda or bicarbonate of soda (2 if you dont have baxitartar)
400ml (14fl oz) buttermilk

I like my soda bread quite dense, to give more lift or air people put in one or two teaspoons of sugar

Preheat the oven to 230ºc / Gas Mark 9.

Sift all the dry ingredients into a large, wide bowl, and make a well in the centre.
Pour in the milk and mix using the fingers of one hand, stiff and oustretched like a claw, stir from the centre to the edge of the bowl in circles.
If you dont like using your hands, try a wooden spoon

The dough should be softish, but not too wet and sticky.
When it all comes together, turn out on to a well-floured work surface.

Wash and dry your hands. Pat the dough into a tidy shape and flip over gently, then pat it into a round about 4cm (1 and 1/2 inches) thick.
Gently transfer to a lightly greased and lightly floured baking tray or tin.

You can cut a deep cross into the loaf and prick the centre of each quarter to let the fairies out, or do a deeply pierced cross pattern with a fork as I do, because thats how I saw it done.
The reason that you make a cross in the top of the loaf before you bake it is to allow the heat to get through to the centre of the bread and cook the middle.

Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 200ºc/Gas Mark 6 and bake for a further 30 minutes or until cooked. If you are in doubt tap the bottom of the bread: it should sound hollow.
Rub the surface with a knob of butter or a few tablespoons of buttermilk while warm - this softens the crust.
Cool on a wire rack.

The Sweeper

Similar to Zuiderzee:

280g strong white bread flour
280g wholemeal flour
1 tsp salt
fistful of porridge oats
2 tsps bicarbonate of soda
1 egg whisked into 400ml buttermilk

Mix thoroughly (great with a dough-hook in a stand mixer). Drop onto a floured board. Shape into a round. Cut a cross in. 15 mins at highest setting the oven has, followed by 25 - 35 on 200 degrees.

I like to cook mine on a pizza stone.