A better Irish Soda Bread

December 8th, 2006 · 10 Comments

I have a love/hate relationship with Irish Soda Bread. The stuff you buy in the store here in New England around St Patrick’s day is filled with raisins and caroway seeds, neither of which my family likes. I hate having to pick the seeds out of my teeth, even though they have a nice flavor.

Every recipe I have tried at home has given me pretty nasty dry crumbly bread that, although it sops up the juices from the New England boiled dinner ok, cloys up the mouth and ends up almost gagging me. Not a happy experience, I tell you.

Recently, my husband did the grocery shopping (always an experience in finding something novel in the grocery bag when he gets home) and he bought a corned beef brisket. With the weather finally getting cold around here, that was a perfect thing for supper.

Well, I went to make the same old Irish soda bread and saw that I had all I needed in the fridge, including the sour cream. A bit later, when I pulled the sour cream out, I realised it wasnt that at all but cottage cheese! I went with serendipity and made the most amazing soda bread yet!

So thats right, this recipe uses cottage cheese (large curd) instead of sour cream. Its so moist, doesnt fall to pieces, soaks up all the juices you would want and stays moist a good few days. Its a major plus that it doesnt cloy up and you dont have to extract it from the roof of your mouth like peanut butter (something that always happened with the other soda breads I have had.)

Try this recipe (below), let me know what you think!

Super Moist Irish Soda Bread Recipe (with a neat twist!)

Ingredients:
4 1/2 C All purpose flour
1/2 C sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 1/4 C cultured buttermilk
1 C large curd cottage cheese

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Spray a 9 inch non-stick springform pan with flour-Pam.
3. In a large bowl, combine and sift all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder).
4. In another bowl, beat the eggs with the buttermilk and then mix in the cottage cheese.
5. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix with a spoon until the dough comes together.
6. In the large bowl, knead the dough enough to incorporate all the stray flour in the bowl (will be sticky).
7. Remove to the springform pan and place in the preheated oven.
Watch the color and allow to bake until it reaches the color you like (deep redish brown in my case) and then cover with foil for the remainder of the cooking time (65-70 mins total)
8. Remove from the oven and pop open the springform pan. Slide the bread onto a wire rack to cool. Can serve 8 large slices, 16 medium. Serve with butter!
9. Store in a plastic zip-lock bag.

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10 comments for this entry ↓

1 Brilynn // Dec 9, 2006 at 7:14 pm

I thoroughly enjoy that you made a heart out of butter… and the bread looks nice too!
2 nika // Dec 10, 2006 at 8:50 pm

thanks for stopping by!
3 The Irish Baker // Jan 9, 2007 at 5:00 pm

Good looking recipe; you neglected one important step - to cut a cross on top of the dough prior to cooking. Irish folklore says it’s to let the fairies out!!

Keep up the good work.
4 nika // Jan 9, 2007 at 10:44 pm

irish baker: thanks for visiting! What if I WANT faeries in my bread? *winks*

I forgot to do it when I tested the recipe and felt odd suggesting that others do it if I didnt. might result in massive thermonuclear soda bread failure!
5 Brian // Apr 4, 2008 at 12:01 pm

I made this yesterday (after my oven exploded the day before and I had to get a repair guy to fix it) and it turned out excellent!

I only baked it for about 55 minutes, and I also glazed a mixture of mostly buttermilk and a little egg and cottage cheese on the surface. The crust was amazing.

This might be too sweet to use as a sandwich bread (as I had used my last soda bread attempt, which only had 1 tsp sugar), but that could probably be resolved by just reducing the amount of sugar.

Thanks!
6 n // Apr 5, 2008 at 9:43 am

Brian: wow, cottage cheese on the surface, wild! Glad you enjoyed this and thanks for sharing your changes.. will give them a try.
7 Brian // Apr 5, 2008 at 11:39 am

I should have been a little clearer. The glaze was put on before baking. The glaze was basically what was left over in the liquids bowl, with a little more buttermilk added. After baking, it had an interesting shine (probably from the eggs) and dark specks that looked like bits of dried cranberries (maybe the curd from the cottage cheese?). It looked great and tasted great too!
8 n // Apr 5, 2008 at 11:42 am

huh, interesting. Love how you are both frugal and creative!
9 Brian // Apr 5, 2008 at 11:52 am

Haha, I don’t think I did a good job of selling it. I’ll try to get a photo for you.
10 n // Apr 5, 2008 at 11:53 am

awesome, look forward to it

Nikas Culinaria

eat with your eyes