Super Easy Irish Soda Bread

Last week when I invited my friends over for dinner on St. Patrick's Day I had no clue what to make. I know English food... but not Irish food. Obviously meat will be involved, but what kind? My mom quickly filled me in on two popular dishes: Corned beef and Irish soda bread. Oh. Um, what are those? I opened my meat cookbook and found a recipe for corned beef... that takes up to five days of brining. I only had two days until St. Patrick’s Day! As I started browsing corned beef recipes online, I found that most grocery stores carry packaged corned beef that's ready to be cooked: perfect!


Now about the soda bread. My mom emailed me a copy of her recipe from Ina Garten. I read through it (Surprisingly there was a lack of "soda" in the ingredients) and was satisfied that it looked fairly easy. I was pretty sure some sort of challenge would come up, but I obtained all the necessary ingredients to try this bread recipe. I really only needed buttermilk, an orange and dried currants.


I found a recipe for the corned beef that calls for it to cook in a crock pot. I love this idea because it frees up the oven to bake other things: cupcakes, soda bread! While the corned beef was happily simmering away atop a bed of chopped veggies, I began the soda bread. I’ve made beer cheese bread once. It turned out a little dry and dense. I had no idea what to expect with this soda bread! Mixing the ingredients was a breeze. I made sure not to mix the dough too much (that’s one thing I’ve learned since the beer bread)… I only kneaded it a few times on my wood board… shaped it into a round loaf… sliced an “X” into the top… and voila! Wait, that was easy. I was so worried I would do something wrong! With baking, it’s much more difficult to fix mistakes, but this went so smoothly!


Ina suggests tapping the loaf and listening for a hallow sound to see if it is fully baked. I ended up cooking it for the full 55 minutes and it sounded about the same as it did at 45 minutes. Next time I may take it out after 45 minutes to see if it changes the texture of the bread. This works great with dinner. It was soft inside and the little currents and orange zest add just the right amount of sweetness. I wasn’t sure if it would be too much like a dessert bread, but it really helped even out the flavors on the plate. I can’t wait to make this again!


Irish Soda Bread
Barefoot Contessa at Home
Serves: about 8 slices

Ingredients:
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for currants
4 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 3/4 cups cold buttermilk, shaken
1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp grated orange zest
1 cup dried currants

1. Preheat oven to 375-degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

2. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the butter on low speed until the butter is mixed into the flour.


3. With a fork, lightly beat the buttermilk, egg and orange zest together in a measuring cup. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture. Combine the currants with 1 Tbsp of flour and mix into the dough. It will be very wet.


4. Dump the dough onto a well-floured board and knead it a few times into a round loaf. Place the loaf on the prepared sheet pan and lightly cut an "X" into the top of the bread with a serrated knife. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. When you tap the loaf, it will have a hallow sound.


5. Cool on a baking rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.