How to Make Irish Soda Bread

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Hi I'm Tanya Steel editor in chief at epicurious.com

and you're watching Around The World In 80 Dishes.

Today we're making the quintessential dish from Ireland,

Irish soda bread.

And we're making it here with Eric Kastel

from The Culinary Institute of America.

Chef, thank you so much for making this with me.

No problem.

All right.

So show me how to make it Chef.

What we do first?

Okay first thing is we're going to take our flour here.

Mmm hmm.

And we're going to sift it with our sugar,

our baking soda,

and a little bit of salt.

Okay.

So I'm going to go ahead and add the sugar in here

and we're sifting all our ingredients

so we can get everything well disbursed throughout

and make sure there's no lumps either.

Now the next thing we're going to add is our butter here.

And we're going to do all of this by hand

so I want to take this butter and I want you to rub it

with the flour.

Okay and this is unsalted butter?

Unsalted butter.

And we just want to rub it and break it down.

Real fine.

You could use a pastry cutter,

you can even do it in the mixer.

But, why not get your hands a little dirty?

Exactly.

That's the fun of making Irish soda bread.

So chef I know that we're using butter here

but our recipe actually calls for shortening.

So it's the same process right?

Yes the same process.

Okay.

What you're doing is almost like you're making pie dough.

Okay.

You're cutting in the fat.

Breaking it up getting little particles of fat

in through the flour.

Okay.

Now we're ready to add the caraway and the raisins.

The whole thing?

Whole thing.

All right.

All measured out.

All ready to go.

Nice.

Could you use golden raisins?

You can use golden raisins.

Another thing you could do is you could add cranberries.

Ooh dried cranberries?

Dried cranberries or dried cherries.

Mmm.

Yeah dried cherries aren't cheap but yeah.

Right.

If you like to have something different.

Yeah.

Now we're going to add our milk here.

Okay.

Is this regular milk or buttermilk or?

I'm using buttermilk.

Buttermilk's going to add a little acid to it.

And also help to activate your baking soda a little.

Should I use my hands with this?

Yes.

Okay.

And at this point we can actually take it out

and we're going to put it on the table.

And work it the rest of the way.

Okay.

Work everything in there.

Get this bad boy ready.

Okay.

Show me what I'm doing.

Okay.

At this point what you need,

you want to bring it over.

Oh!

And then press in a little.

Okay.

I see you're pushing in,

folding over in half and pushing down.

Mmm hmm.

And I'm even turning the dough over.

Because see the dry is always at the bottom?

Want to make sure we get that in.

Patting it down.

At a certain point we can even take the dough,

break it up just like we did earlier in the bowl,

to help to get everything else to incorporate here.

Is there such a thing as over kneading it?

We can over knead it.

But it's going to have to come together.

Then we would start over kneading.

And at this point we only need to work this

for about 30 seconds on the bench a little.

Really?

That's it.

We don't need a lot of gluten structure here.

So we're just looking to bring it to a homogenous mass here.

Mmm hmm.

Okay.

Why don't you take over?

Yeah!

I was waiting for you to ask me.

You're enjoying that.

I am!

So do we let this rest or?

No we're not going to let it rest.

We're going to get it all together here.

We want to make sure we get everything off our table here.

Okay.

Okay.

At this point I just want to roll it

a little oblong.

So we can equally divide it into two pieces.

So would you like to divide the two pieces?

All right.

So I just cut straight down?

Straight down the middle there.

Yeah.

That was good.

Okay.

So now at this point what we want to do is take the loaf

and just fold it over in half.

Okay.

Give it a quarter turn.

Mmm hmm.

We're going to fold it over in half one more time.

Give it a little push

Yeah.

Quarter turn.

Okay.

One more.

Okay.

Now at this point you see you have all your seam here?

Yes.

You want to put all that underneath.

Oh like that.

Yes.

Okay.

And now at this point what I want to do,

is I want to cup the bread.

I want to get a little bit of dough right down there.

And just pull it a little towards me.

Now give it a quarter turn.

Okay.

And do it again?

We're going to do that one more time.

And what is that doing?

What we're doing is we're tightening it.

You see it's getting tighter?

Oh, yes.

And what we're doing is we're just tightening

that outer wall there.

A quarter turn at a time.

You're making it like a rugby football or something.

Yeah.

And we're done.

Whew!

Wow.

We have a nice ball.

That's pretty easy.

Yeah.

Now we're going to put it on our baking sheet here

that's been oiled.

We're also going to take a little of cornmeal.

Mmm hmm.

And sprinkle the tray with the cornmeal.

Okay.

So this prevents it from sticking?

Is that why we do this?

Yes.

We oiled it and the cornmeal is going to help to

break it loose a little.

Okay is that enough?

Yes ma'am.

Then we can put two on this tray.

So we want one over here and one over here.

All right.

We're going to now sprinkle some flour on the top.

Just like this?

Yes.

Too much?

No.

A little more so you get it all over.

Oh more?

Yes.

Oh my gosh I thought I was being a spaz.

Is that all right?

That's good.

Okay.

Now what we want to do

we'd like to take our knife

and we want to cut the top surface here.

A little cross in it.

Hmm?

With a nice sharp knife.

Mmm hmm.

Cut a cross in this.

And what does that do?

Now it's going to allow it to open up more.

So at this point we're ready to bake it.

Okay.

So it gets baked in an oven of what temperature?

We're going to bake it in the oven at 400 degrees.

For 25 minutes?

About 25 minutes.

Okay.

So here we have these already baking.

God those look beautiful.

And you see we have that nice golden brown.

And you also notice they don't give in the middle.

But the biggest test is when we turn it upside down.

Mmm hmm.

And you might want to take your cloth and hold it,

turn it upside down.

And it sounds hollow.

It doesn't give.

Oh!

Is that true with all breads?

Pretty much all breads that's what you're looking for.

Oh!

So will you cut a slice for me?

Or should I pull off a chunk?

Let's just break it.

Break it?

Okay we're breaking bread together?

Break bread.

Why not?

This is a dream come true.

It's a wonderful thing.

Do you want some of this?

Sure.

It looks delicious.

Mmm hmm.

I like that golden color.

I'm giving you the bit with the raisins.

Mmm!

Oh my God the caraway adds so much!

Mmm hmm.

Chef thank you so much.

This Irish soda bread is so delicious.

And it's actually incredibly easy to make.

Definitely!

I mean that's what's nice about it.

You can come home.

While you're cooking dinner.

First thing you did was you made the bread.

Had the oven warming up.

Put it right in.

Baked it and had fresh bread with dinner every night.

The Irish don't have to just be the lucky ones,

the rest of us can do it too with this.

Every day.

All right.

Chef thank you so much.

Thank you.