Sourdough Irish Soda Bread
My Sourdough Irish Soda Bread is a twist on the classic. It has all the flavour of traditional soda bread with extra tang from the sourdough starter.
Servings 12
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups (490g) plain/all-purpose flour
- 5 tbsp caster sugar* (see note)
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda/baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 stick (56g) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
- 1 cup (164g) raisins* (see note)
- 1 large egg
- 8 oz (225g) sourdough starter discard, I feed mine daily with 50g flour and 50g filtered water. I fed my starter the day before making this soda bread, then used 8oz of it before feeding for that day.
- 2/3 cup (160ml) buttermilk, depending on your flour brand, you may need a couple of tbsp extra buttermilk. Only add enough for the dough to come together into one big, non sticky ball of dough.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 190C/375F and line a baking tray with grease proof paper/a silicone mat.
- Place the flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, salt and butter into a large bowl. Either use your fingers to rub the butter into the flour, or use a pastry cutter. I find a pastry cutter much quicker and easier. You're looking for a breadcrumb texture. It won't be coarse, since there isn't a lot of butter to flour.
- Add in the raisins, if using. Then add the egg and sourdough starter. Stir until the mixture starts to come together, then add the buttermilk slowly. You may not need all of the buttermilk, I did. Sometimes (with different flour brands), you may need less or a couple of tbsp more.
- Continue to bring everything together until you have one large ball of dough, which has come away from the sides of the bowl and isn't overly sticky.
- Tip the dough onto your prepared tray and shape into a 9-10 inch round loaf. You want a domed top which will be around 4 inches tall.
- Take a bread knife and cut a line around 1 inch deep from top to bottom and then left to right. Place in the oven for 35-40 minutes, until risen, golden all over and it feel hollow when you tap it. Mine took 37 minutes.
- Leave the soda bread to cool down for at least 40 minutes before digging in. It is delicious straight from the oven, but it won't slice nicely!
- Once completely cool, store in an airtight bag, at room temperature, for up to a week. Sourdough Irish Soda Bread is great at room temperature or toasted, served with butter or jam.
Notes
*Notes - You can easily make this a savoury loaf by using only 2tbsp of caster sugar instead of the 5 mentioned in the recipe. Omit the raisins too.