It's just a Quarantine fact of life since we can't get to the grocery store regularly. Bread is tricky at the store right now too. Fresh bread is hard to come across in a lot of the neighborhood stores by us. And if you do find bread, you can't really buy in bulk because if you don't eat it fast enough it can go stale or moldy. We could freeze an extra loaf here or there, but honestly since I'm not working right this minute... I need to bake for de-stressing purposes!
Luckily, Soda Bread is super easy to make. It only takes a few ingredients and one bowl. No yeast in sight. I've made it a handful of times and it's gone really well each time.
Typically most recipes call for Buttermilk, but with the quarantine that's a little bit difficult to come by so I found a substitution that works really well. Milk combined with fresh squeezed lemon juice. The lemon juice curdles the milk slightly and replicates the consistency of buttermilk. It's a great substitute.
Since quarantine started, I've now made it three times.
The first time was last week, and it was delicious! I made a small loaf and it was great. We ate some with breakfast and then left the house to run errands. When we came home, we found it had met its demise thanks to our sweet little kitty who decided it was a hockey puck.
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| Our first loaf in our new place! |
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| all sliced up... before the cat eventually got it! |
So I had to re-bake it the same day. It was not what I wanted to do that day but it's okay. At least the cat was cute and the recipe is easy! Thank goodness!
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| Our bigger loaf! |
It was a success and we put the bread out of Maestro's path. He's an incredibly curious kitty who gets into everything so we learned our lesson!
We ate the second loaf with a bunch of different meals:
We ate the second loaf with a bunch of different meals:
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| Green pepper and mushroom omelette with feta and toasted soda bread |
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| Pumpkin Soup with a side of Soda bread |
Today, I decided to make the soda bread again to go with our dinner. We needed a little something to go with our left over steak and pepper stir fry. I even decided to add some jalapenos to the recipe! Oh man, it's perfect! Just a hint of spice.
I've played with my recipe a couple of times and changed things around a bit. I doubled the recipe to make a bigger loaf. Here's my modified recipe! The jalapenos are optional and can be replaced with any number of different ingredients depending on the flavor combinations you'd like.
Soda Bread (with Jalapenos)
Ingredients
- 2 cups milk
- juice from 1 freshly squeezed lemon
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 -1 1/2 tsp salt
- OPTIONAL: 1 sliced jalapeno (or you can add raisins, walnuts or any other ingredient to the mix for a tasty bread!)
1. Stir the milk and lemon juice together. Let sit for 10 minutes until curdled.
2. Preheat oven to 400° F. Line a pan or baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.
4. Gradually add the milk into the flour mixture until the dough just comes together. You can use a spatula or other utensil to mix but mixing by hand also works. The dough is quite sticky at first so keep a small stock pile of flour on hand.
5. If you're adding jalapenos, , add them after
6. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead a few times. Make sure the jalapenos are spread evenly throughout the dough.
7. At this point, you have two options. You can either shape the dough into one round or you can cut the dough in 2 and shape into rounds.
8. With a sharp knife, cut an x into the top of each loaf to release steam and help the bread keep its shape.
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| It looks so beautiful going into the oven |
9. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes depending on your oven and if you make one loaf or two. Remove from the oven when golden. Check to make sure dough is fully cooked in the center with a toothpick. It should go into the dough smooth and come out clean.
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| Perfectly baked! |
10. I definitely recommend cutting the bread while still warm. It cuts so easily after being out of the oven for a little while (Don't burn your hands on the dough though!) Then you can eat while warm or wait for the loaf to cool and the flavors to really come together.
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| Beautiful slices |
We ate a few slices each with our leftover stir fried steak and peppers with salsa and sour cream. It was so delicious. The bread itself is mild in flavor so it pairs well with a lot of different dishes.
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| Dinner is served |
Give it a try and let me know what you think! What mix-ins will you try? What do you eat your soda bread with?
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