Soda Bread Basics

• Until refined baking soda became available in the industrialized 19th century, leavened breads were all made with yeast-based starters or sourdough. This kind of bread requires hard wheat flour with high gluten, which grows poorly in Ireland. With the advent of inexpensive baking soda, it became possible for the rural Irish to make a serviceable loaf from their homegrown soft wheat by leavening it with soda and buttermilk. The bread could be baked quickly in the ashes of a fire or on a griddle, so it also used fuel economically. Inexpensive and filling, soda bread quickly became an important staple in Ireland.

Mixing in Blueberries

• Blueberries are just as tasty in soda bread as they are in pancakes, but they require a degree of care in mixing. If you intend to incorporate them into the dough, the best time to add them is after you've begun to mix the wet and dry ingredients. Scatter fresh blueberries across the top of the dough, then scrape and fold the dough to finish incorporating the wet and dry ingredients. Knead the dough a few times, then shape it for baking. If you're using frozen berries, add them while they're still frozen, otherwise their juice will color the entire loaf.

Layering the Berries

• Mixing either fresh or frozen berries into the dough can be problematic because they're prone to bursting and leaking juice into the dough. Some bakers prefer to pat out the dough into an oblong, then sprinkle the berries on top. When the dough is folded up and patted into the traditional round shape, the berries are trapped inside. This doesn't distribute the berries as evenly throughout the bread, but it keeps them intact and minimizes the likelihood of the dough being tinted by the blueberry juice.

Dried Blueberries

• One oddity of blueberries in soda bread or soda-raised muffins is that the alkaline soda reacts with the juice of the berries, creating a greenish tinge in the dough around each berry. You can minimize this, especially with frozen berries, by tossing them with a small amount of flour before adding them to the dough. Alternatively you could use dried blueberries, which you can buy in most supermarkets and bulk food stores. They have no juice to create this green tinge, and can be mixed into the dough as easily as raisins or currants.