Top 'o the Morning to You! This wholemeal Irish soda bread is a great way to start off your St. Patrick's Day celebrations for all actual and aspiring Irish folk.
This bread hearkens back to a time when Irish soda bread was a more rustic, country affair, not all gussied up with mostly white flour. Traditionally, the Irish didn't have a lot of white flour, and the loaves were a bit coarser and darker, but also healthier. Let's not wax eloquent over those Medieval white bread loaves whose noble persons so eagerly sought out. I wonder if they knew that ground chalk was sometimes put in their flour to make it appear whiter.
We're talking about a somewhat large, delicious, nutty-tasting loaf made with wholemeal flour and, yes, a little bit of white flour to lighten up the texture. You can certainly do all wholemeal if you wish.
I like to embellish my loaf with raisins and either caraway, anise, or even fennel seeds for a unique taste, and to really gild the lily, some homemade or good-quality strawberry jam and butter.
This would be very appetizing for either breakfast — in which case it's best made the day before — or afternoon tea. You can see in this photo how the bread should look, and do make sure it is a deep golden brown to ensure that it has baked through.
Ingredients:
Directions:
1. Stir together the flour, soda, salt in a large bowl.Sue Van Slooten teaches cooking and baking classes at her home on beautiful Big Rideau Lake, Ontario, Canada. All MOTHER EARTH NEWS community bloggers have agreed to follow our Blogging Guidelines, and they are responsible for the accuracy of their posts. To learn more about the author of this post, click on their byline link at the top of the page.
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I made this bread (minus the seeds) and it was delicious - heavy and moist, just as we like it. I think I scored the top too deeply, however, as the loaf broke apart along my score lines. I baked it in a greased quiche pan, which had the added bonus of a rim to hold the crumbs. Next time I will try increasing the amount of raisins to 1 cup.