I’ve written a lot of menus for our (now digital) bar, Rainbow Wine and Snack Bar, and bread is on all of them. It can make a collection of snacks into kind of a meal and is therefore essential to surviving and enjoying a night out. Many breads fit this bill, but I was imagining a workplace where anyone, including myself, could produce the loaves. Soda bread is made for this. It can be made in less than an hour and with a handful of ingredients, is inexpensive, and requires less equipment and technical skill than many yeast leavened or sourdough breads. Though my concept of soda bread comes from my high school cafeteria, the technique of mixing chemical leavener, in this case soda ash, into dough is attributed to Indigenous people of North America. It has been hard to find exactly what peoples practiced this method, if you have any insight please let me know I'm very curious. The bread that was served at my Chicago high school is a variation from the Irish cooking tradition sometimes referred to as spotted dog, which includes sugar and raisins, maybe you know it. The bread that is considered “the bread” is not so fancy, it’s practical and economical, born after Nicolas Leblanc discovered how to produce sodium carbonate from the more common and inexpensive sodium chloride (salt). The methodology spread to other parts of Europe when Leblanc lost his factory in the French Revolution, influencing not just cookery but soap and glass production. What became sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) was cheaper than yeast and reacted with soured milk. Though the bread is designed to be simple using the inexpensive ingredients and something saved from the bin, the done up version from my teens made such an impression on me that I still crave some additions. In a bid for something distinct and hearty for the bar I searched for the recipe for a variation I had eaten at a fancy pub in England called The Sportsman a couple years ago. It was easily found, has a lot of ingredients and is a bit sweet from the addition of black treacle. After spending a week and a half gathering ingredients I baked it according to the chef, Stephen Harris’ recipe. It was pretty bland and dry which struck me as both funny and a bummer that you can follow an exact recipe from the literal chef and your craving is unsatisfied.
I brought my concern to Cub, my partner in this business and favorite/most Irish cook I know, and was sent many recipes from Tim Allen’s “The Ballymaloe Bread Book” as well as his notes on the genre. From him I learned that soda bread is more of an art than a science, in your hands and how you handle the dough. A light touch is required as to not overwork and toughen the bread, mix to just incorporate do not knead. In combining the breadth of this knowledge with my narrow idea of something good, I have kind of gotten there. It turns out that it’s a sourcing issue, the wheat that grows in Ireland is soft. The climate in Ireland is not suited to grow the higher protein hard wheat, the island never gets the summer heat or winter cold that the crop needs. But the soft wheat grows in abundance. While my bread does have some soft wheat incorporated as part of the self raising flour blend the bulk of the mix comes from hard whole wheat flour that wants to toughen so badly. I still cook from the same recipe but compensate for the flour by adding more treacle than the original recipe calls for, up to 2 tablespoons. It doesn’t recreate the texture but it tastes very good and makes it feel closer to my taste memory. While you could pursue getting imported flour in this case I’ve chosen mostly to embrace what we’ve got around here, save the treacle, it feels practical and more suited to the spirit of the bread. If you cannot get oats, wheat bran, or wheat germ you can replace the weight of that ingredient with what you do have. Measured impracticalities for this sustaining treat.
This week in the shop (click here to shop) we have 5 new wines: Domaine de la Petite Soeur Kumu, I Castagnucoli Quel che c’e, Dernière Goutte Tisane de Bois Tordu, Maisons Brulées R2L'O and Babass La Navine. Let us know if you have any questions: DM @rainbow_wines or email rainbowwinechi@gmail.com
Mostly Illinoisan Soda Bread (aka Stephen Harris's recipe for my oven):
64 g self raising flour
127.5 g whole wheat flour
64 g rolled oats (leave whole or blend depending on desired texture)
14 g wheat bran
28 g wheat germ
hearty pinch of salt
10 g baking soda
1-2 tbsp treacle*
1 1/4 cup buttermilk, kefir, or yogurt (not Greek)
Preheat oven to 450 F
Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl and make a well
Add wet ingredients into the well and mix your bread by making your hand into a sort of claw, if it is very dry add a little water or milk, if very wet add a bit of flour
Coat the dough in flour and shape it into a loaf
Place on a lightly floured baking sheet and cut a few vents into the dough**
Place in oven and cook for 10 minutes then reduce heat to 400 and Bake for 20 more.
Flip the loaf over and cook it belly side up for five more minutes
You will know the loaf is done if it sounds hollow when tapped
*You can sub molasses for the treacle, I might add a little more salt if you’re using Grandma’s Molasses or a similar brand. Additionally my research on whether Tate & Lyle's black treacle has S02 is inconclusive.
**In Ireland soda bread is shaped as a circular loaf with a deep cross cut into the dough, serving both to bless the bread and allow the center to cook without drying out the outside. Darina Allen of Ballymaloe Cooking School also pokes each of the four corners of the bread to let the fairies out, placating the fairies is important so they don't cause mischief. I have been shaping mine into a longer loaf with angled vents which works too.
-Emily
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