Sunday, May 20, 2007

Oatmeal Soda Bread

I am lucky. The first time I ate Irish soda bread was in Ireland. It was so good that the first loaf of bread I made after coming back was soda bread. Unfortunately, I misread the recipe and put in 1 tablespoon of baking soda instead of 1 teaspoon. Don't do that. The bread was consigned to be dog treats, and I didn't try making soda bread for two years. Yeast breads, after all, are delicious. I finally made this bread back in January after finding the recipe on All Recipes. I loved its taste, ease, and flexibility. At this point, I've changed the recipe a decent amount and call it my own.
The original recipe called for sour cream, but I often have leftover plain yogurt around and have found that it works just as well. I haven't tried buttermilk yet, but I've found that it's generally a good substitute. The sultanas and caraway seeds are more authentic, but dried currants or cranberries are tasty. Even plain, this is a good bread.
This bread is a great introduction to baking beyond chocolate chip cookies. I worked with at-risk pre-schoolers this last year and made this bread as a work-time activity. The three most behind kids in the class were my helpers, and they loved making it. Even with quite a bit of flour lost due to the flinging of mixing spoons, the bread tasted great.


Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour 8 oz. sour cream or plain yogurt
2 1/2 cups AP flour 3/4 cup skim or lowfat milk
1/2 cup uncooked oatmeal 2 Tb. honey
1 tsp. baking powder 1 Tb. white sugar
1 tsp. baking soda 1/4 cup melted butter
1 tsp. salt 1/4-1/3 cup sultanas (golden raisins)
2 Tb. caraway seeds

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees, remembering to place in your baking stone. Otherwise, butter two loaf pans. Mix together the flours, oatmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.


2. Mix the sour cream or yogurt, milk, honey, and sugar in a medium bowl.


3. Add the milk mixture to the flours and stir until just blended. Stir in the butter. The dough will be sticky.

4. Add the sultanas and caraway, mixing until evenly dispersed.

5. Sprinkle cornmeal on your hot baking stone and plop the dough on it, or divide the dough evenly between the two prepared loaf pans.
6. Bake for about 40 minutes. Allow to cool on a rack for at least 20 minutes before cutting.