History

• First discovered by American Indians, soda is a natural leavening agent found in wood ashes. Many years later, bread made with baking soda became a staple in Ireland where baking soda was the only leavening that could be used with flour milled from the soft wheat grown in its mild climate. Another reason for soda bread's popularity was that it could be baked in a fireplace without an oven in a covered pan set directly in the hot coals.

Ingredients

• In its most basic form, Irish soda bread can be made using only four simple ingredients: flour, baking soda, buttermilk and salt. Made without yeast, soda bread needs no rising time, and goes from preparation to a finished loaf in roughly an hour. While basic brown Irish soda bread contains no other ingredients, some recipes call for the addition of caraway seeds, raisins or other dried fruit, orange zest, butter, eggs and sugar, or other sweeteners. Unlike yeast breads, Irish soda bread is not kneaded at all, and it's important not to overwork the dough, as that toughens it.

Shaping the Bread

• Cutting a slash into the top of soda bread dough allows more heat to penetrate into the dense dough and allows it to expand as it bakes. Irish soda bread can be made in one of two forms: as a cake, which is a whole round loaf baked on a pan in the oven, or as four separate smaller breads called farls. After assembling the dough, roll it out for cake into a single round that measures about six to eight inches in diameter and make the cross slash with a very sharp knife about halfway down into the dough, but not quite all the way to the edges. The cross slashed into the top of the dough also makes it easy to cut it all the way through to separate it into four sections for farls that can be baked in an oven or on a griddle.

Baking the Bread

• Whether you use the basic traditional Irish soda bread or a more updated version that calls for more ingredients, the same baking temperature is used, which is 425 degrees Fahrenheit in a preheated oven. The bread is done in about 35 to 45 minutes, or when it sounds hollow when tapped and is a rich golden brown. To prepare farls on a griddle or in a skillet, heat the pan to medium-high and dust with flour. Cook the soda bread quarters about 10 minutes on each side, remove from the pan and allow to cool.