Recipe for "soda-bread"

NAME

     SODA-BREAD - Two white soda loaves
     This is a basic soda bread, following  the  Irish  mode.   I
     scaled  up  the  recipe  from one of Beard's, and changed it
     some.  It is quite crusty,  and  really  all-purpose.   This
     soda  bread  takes  around  a  third the time and a half the
     effort of a comparable yeast bread.  Since no yeast bread is
     much like it, I don't know what would be comparable.  People
     who have never tried a soda bread  will  note  many  differ-
     ences,  like  the  order  you add things (flour and then the
     liquid...).

INGREDIENTS (2 loaves)

     800 g     white flour (unbleached)
     8-10 dl    buttermilk, at room temperature
     5 ml      salt
     10 ml     baking powder
     7.5 ml    baking soda
     150 g     currants (optional)
     5 ml      butter or oil

PROCEDURE

          (1)  Sift together the  flour,  baking  powder,  baking
               soda, and salt.
          (2)  Preheat the oven to 175 deg. C.
          (3)  Stir in  buttermilk, a cup at a time.  You  should
               make  a  fairly  soft  dough that will nonetheless
               hold its shape.   Thus,  you  may  need  the  full
               amount of buttermilk.
          (4)  Turn the dough out onto a well-floured board (this
               is  a stock phrase; do it anyway).  Knead until it
               is smooth and soft, probably about 7 minutes.  You
               should  have  to keep adding a little flour to the
               board for the first few minutes to keep the  dough
               from sticking.
          (5)  Are you using currants? Knead them in,  then.   Or
               don't, accordingly.
          (6)  Tear the dough in half.  Form  each  half  into  a
               ball.  With a knife, slash a cross in the top.
          (7)  Place the  balls,  cross  up,  well  apart,  on  a
               greased baking sheet.
          (8)  Put this sheet, bread side up, into the oven.
          (9)  Bake for 35 or 40 minutes.  The  loaves  are  done
               when  they  sound hollow at a knocking hand.  They
               should also get to be a nice  light  brown  color.
               The  cross  will  split  open,  and  the resultant
               points will get hard and dark brown.   Soda  bread
               has  a  tendency to crack in the oven.  This is no
               big deal.

NOTES

     You can substitute, per James Beard's recommendation,  about
     4  cups of whole-wheat flour for half the white.  Since this
     will be heavier, use about 40% more baking powder. The bread
     made this way is markedly different.

RATING

     Difficulty: easy to moderate.  Time: 30 minutes building, 45
     minutes baking.  Precision: Measure the ingredients.

CONTRIBUTOR

     David Hendler
     Aiken Computation Lab (Harvard Univ.)
     hendler@harvard.harvard.edu