a sodabread recipe

it's that time of year again, so i'm deviating from my usual simpler flatbreads. this morning i baked some sodabread for tonight's dinner.

I preheated the oven to 350 and readied a large mixing cup and a mixing bowl.

I rounded up some:
unbleached wheat flour (4 cups),
corn meal (1/2 cup),
baking powder (2 Tbs.),
salt (2 Tbs.),
sugar (1/2 cup),
alspice (about 8 pods),
caraway seed (2 Tbs.),
butter (1 stick).
vinegar (1/4 cup)
milk (2 cups)

the caraway and allspice where crushed and added to the rest of the dry ingredients then well mixed in the large bowl. the butter was cut in.

the vinegar was added to the mixing cup and the milk poured into it. this was added to the mixing bowl and mixed well. this was divided into 4 portions which where rolled into balls, rolled in flour, placed on a greased baking sheet and cross-slit on top. these where then dusted with flour and baked about 35 min until done.

i let these stand until just warm and fiendishly broke into one to see how they came out. pretty good, if i might say myself.

Mmm sounds good, I always have trouble with sodabread, it seems to taste very salty.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Winnie

Mmm sounds good, I always have trouble with sodabread, it seems to taste very salty.

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Hope you didn't use Baking Soda instead of Baking powder. My sister in law did that on a recipe once, it tasted like a salt block.

Canid, sounds good I think Ill try it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gryffynklm

Hope you didn't use Baking Soda instead of Baking powder. My sister in law did that on a recipe once, it tasted like a salt block.

Canid, sounds good I think Ill try it.

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Oh lordy, you've hit the nail on the head! The recipes I've tried have said Bicarbonate of Soda(Baking Soda) I'll use baking powder!

this got me thinking.

Bicarbonate of soda is used for rising instead of yeast. here is another thought.

Bacarb could be correct and is a common ingredient in soda bread. Perhaps the measure is wrong. i have a friend that couldn't make granmom's recipe for a cake. He asked to watch her make it and found that she used spoon (not a teaspoon measure) her spoon was larger by 50%. that is a lot in an ingredient like baking soda.

it's just the measure. a tablespoon of double action baking powder is probably 1 1/2 teaspoons corn starch, so you can imagine how little soda is in it.

any substitution of soda and acid for a given recipe that calls for baking powder would be workable, but would also call for a little experimentation, as even the consistency of he dough may need adjustment to rise the same. there's an exact science to it somewhere, but for those of us who don't have it down, it's more of an experimental art.

clasic soda bread as i'm accustomed to it has a definite taste of vinagar (i prefer vinegar soured milk over buttermilk for that reason), soda, tartar/aluminum metalic taste. as long as all of these are mild, the caraway compliments them well. too much of any can be a bit rough.