Irish Soda Bread

Saint Patrick's Day is coming up quickly, and I've been put in charge of cooking the Paddy's Day feast at my local community center. We're doing the required corned beef, potatoes and carrots, braised cabbage, horseradish, and of course soda bread.

Soda breads became popular in Ireland because they could only grow soft wheat reliably. Hard wheat just wasn't suited for that region. Soft wheat flour lacks the protein needed to trap the gasses produced during yeast fermentation, so the Irish needed to turn to chemical leaveners to do the job. At first, this was done by a combination of acidic buttermilk and one of a variety of alkaline carbonate salts. Sometime in the 19th century, baking powder started to be incorporated into soda breads. Our modern baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) eventually became the default alkaline in the Western baking world.

It's worth mentioning that soda bread is part of the farl and scone continuum of the British Isles. If you can master soda bread, you can easily master the others. In Ireland, the addition of the raisins and caraway technically puts us in the category of tea breads (sweeter and garnished soda breads) rather then soda bread proper. This is, then, an Irish American version of soda bread. Since we generally eat it only once a year (if that), we can be a little extravagant.

Irish Soda Bread Formula in Baker's Percentages
AP Flour .....................100
Baking Soda ...................1.25
Salt .................................1.25
Sugar ..............................5
Baking Powder ...............5
Butter ...........................10
Raisins ..........................20
Caraway Seed ................1.25
Buttermilk .....................70
....................................213.25
Mixing Method: Biscuit

Scale at ~1lb (450g) per unit

Makeup: Ball shaped loaf scored with a deep cross.

Baking: 375 deg F ~30-40 minutes.

NB: Plump up the raisins with a little hot water after scaling, then drain.