Soda Bread

I am Fof

I am Fof

Well-Known Member
Joined
22 Apr 2020
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Location
UK
First let me say I am NOT a cook. I just mess around.:thumbsdown:

I live on my own, with just an up & over fridge/freezer, so very limited storage.
I don't use a lot of bread, a large loaf will last me 2-3 weeks, so when I buy one, it takes up valuable freezer space.

Over the years, I have eaten bread in many places around the world.
One that always stuck in my mind was soda bread, because of its flavour. Not a nice one.

Running around the web, I see LOTS of recipies for soda bread. As the ones I had tried had probably been home made, and to personal taste, I decided to have a trial.

The first recipe I tried was for any size loaf, from 100g upwards, and that is the IDEAL size for my requirements.
The recipe called for 100g-500g flour + 1tsp baking soda/100g flour.

HORRIBLE!!!!!!!:yuck::yuck:

Had a look at another recipe - 500g flour + 1 tsp baking soda, ie <1/4 tsp/100g.
Retried the original but with <1/4tsp, but still the flavour is there, albeit greatly reduced.

How little baking soda can I get away with, without ending up with unleaven bread?
Can the flavour be eliminated?

What I want is something with the taste/texture of bread, not banana type breads. In addtion, it shouldn't take hours, like yeast breads.
Above all, though, no baking soda taste.
TIA

Fof
 
I am Fof said:
What I want is something with the taste/texture of bread, not banana type breads. In addtion, it shouldn't take hours, like yeast breads.
Above all, though, no baking soda taste.
Click to expand...

Well maybe if you don't like the taste, its not the bread for you. I know Windigo made soda bread very recently from a Paul Hollywood recipe (see here), so maybe she could comment. I have the recipe in his book so I'll look it up tomorrow and post the ratios.

TastyReuben also recently made a brown soda bread (see here).
 
morning glory said:
Well maybe if you don't like the taste, its not the bread for you. I know Windigo made soda bread very recently from a Paul Hollywood recipe (see here), so maybe she could comment. I have the recipe in his book so I'll look it up tomorrow and post the ratios.

TastyReuben also recently made a brown soda bread (see here).
Click to expand...

I did not, indeed appreciate the taste of the baking soda. It tasted like sweet bread to me too. I am trying a normal bread dough next time.
 
Soda bread has a bit of a reputation, sort of like fruitcake at Christmas; you eat it because you're supposed to, not because you want to (in the case of soda bread, the occasion is St Pat's Day).

Personally, I don't mind it, but I absolutely can smell (more so than taste) the baking soda in a loaf. Depending on what I'm having with it can also alter my mood for it. It's a lot less noxious with a bowl of hearty soup than it is with, say, a smear of jam (though that's ok, too).

Boyo, that's not helpful at all, is it? :)

My advice for both situations is the same: soda bread is going to taste/smell like baking soda. It just is. The up side is, you get bread in no time.

Yeast breads are going to take a while to rise. They just are. The up side is, you get what most would consider a far superior loaf.

So my advice, as crap as it sounds, is to alter your expectations. If you want bread fast, you'll need to get past that sort of dry, chemical taste. If you want softer, more flavorful bread, you need to invest about four hours (plus cooling time) - realize, though, that that four hours is about 3.75 hours of the dough doing the work. Once you get the hang of it, you can get the dough together in 10-15 minutes of actual hands-on effort (if you have a stand mixer; otherwise, plan on 20-30 minutes).

You might want to google "fast yeast bread" or something like that. There are probably shortcuts people have found to speed up rising (use a lot more yeast?), and I'll take a look later tonight and see what I can find.
 
Naillig said:
Soda bread is very popular here in Northern Ireland,
Click to expand...
We make it a lot here in the winter for toasties. I save bacon fat and use it instead of butter. My fav Ulster fry back in the day was a cafe near Dargan Rd Belfast.
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45104
 
have you looked at no-knead bread(s)? you can make any size you want.
flour+yeast+salt (optional)+water.
hand mix / stir to a shaggy dough, allow to sit (covered) overnight at room temp - this is a 'shaggy' dough:
DSC_4600s.jpg

start bake covered, then uncover
a small loaf bake would be on the order of 30 minutes....

100 g hard flour
80 g water - can reduce to 75 g for a free form ie no pan loaf.
1-2 g / 2 ml yeast
1-2 g / 2 ml salt
how to cover:
DSC_2619s.JPG

or
DSC_4640s.JPG
 
CookieMonster said:
have you looked at no-knead bread(s)? you can make any size you want.
flour+yeast+salt (optional)+water.
hand mix / stir to a shaggy dough, allow to sit (covered) overnight at room temp - this is a 'shaggy' dough:
View attachment 45128
start bake covered, then uncover
a small loaf bake would be on the order of 30 minutes....

100 g hard flour
80 g water - can reduce to 75 g for a free form ie no pan loaf.
1-2 g / 2 ml yeast
1-2 g / 2 ml salt
how to cover:
View attachment 45129
or
View attachment 45130
Click to expand...

Waiting for the reveal!
 
TastyReuben said:
Soda bread has a bit of a reputation, sort of like fruitcake at Christmas; you eat it because you're supposed to, not because you want to (in the case of soda bread, the occasion is St Pat's Day).

Personally, I don't mind it, but I absolutely can smell (more so than taste) the baking soda in a loaf. Depending on what I'm having with it can also alter my mood for it. It's a lot less noxious with a bowl of hearty soup than it is with, say, a smear of jam (though that's ok, too).

Boyo, that's not helpful at all, is it? :)

My advice for both situations is the same: soda bread is going to taste/smell like baking soda. It just is. The up side is, you get bread in no time.

Yeast breads are going to take a while to rise. They just are. The up side is, you get what most would consider a far superior loaf.

So my advice, as crap as it sounds, is to alter your expectations. If you want bread fast, you'll need to get past that sort of dry, chemical taste. If you want softer, more flavorful bread, you need to invest about four hours (plus cooling time) - realize, though, that that four hours is about 3.75 hours of the dough doing the work. Once you get the hang of it, you can get the dough together in 10-15 minutes of actual hands-on effort (if you have a stand mixer; otherwise, plan on 20-30 minutes).

You might want to google "fast yeast bread" or something like that. There are probably shortcuts people have found to speed up rising (use a lot more yeast?), and I'll take a look later tonight and see what I can find.
Click to expand...

A properly "doused" fruitcake can be re-gifted for years! Nobody I know eats it. Just like "Peeps", it has the half life of Strontium 90. :eek:
 
TastyReuben said:
sort of like fruitcake at Christmas; you eat it because you're supposed to,
Click to expand...
You bloody heretic, people have been known to crawl over broken glass for a slice of our divine confections. The rich fruit cake was a minimum of 12 months old. The M/pan and icing were scratch made. I am reporting you to the Human rights court in the Hague for the crime blasphemy of the fruit cake.
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Burt Blank said:
You bloody heretic, people have been known to crawl over broken glass for a slice of our divine confections. The rich fruit cake was a minimum of 12 months old. The M/pan and icing were scratch made. I am reporting you to the Human rights court in the Hague for the crime blasphemy of the fruit cake.View attachment 45239

View attachment 45240
Click to expand...
Your fruit cake and our fruitcake may share a name and a lineage, but they're very different beasts.
 
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