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Why do all these recipes use cake flour?
Because they are based on Irish recipes, and Ireland only grows soft wheat. Flour in the US generally comes from hard wheat which produces a hard flour, like all-purpose and bread flour. Because of their high gluten content, doughs made from them are elastic and tough enough to hold a baked shape. However, US cake flour comes from soft winter wheat. It has about half the gluten of regular US flour so it is called soft flour, and doughs made from it have a fine, slightly crumbly texture. All flour in Europe resembles US cake flour because Europe grows only soft winter wheat. Now you know why translating a European recipe in the US has this unexpected pitfall – the flour!
History
Stone Age flatbread is the earliest record of bread in Ireland. While there was always home baking, it was also a trade, bakers traveling where needed. 1478 saw the first Charter for a Bakers Guild, only a few hundred years after the bread was introduced to Ireland in the 1100s by the Anglo-Normans. While potatoes were the Irish diet staple, the 1845 potato blight that lasted to 1852 killed the crops. Then bread became their staple, and home baking took off like a rocket, resulting in many types of bread. It seems the high popularity of soda bread dates from this time. It is quick (no rising time needed), easy to make each morning, and while we know it as Irish Soda Bread, it was actually created by Native Americans, the first to be documented using a natural form of soda (pearl ash). Soda Bread became Irish in the 1830s when baking soda was first introduced to the country. And just in time; the famine caused by potato blight meant bread was needed and had to be made from the most inexpensive and basic ingredient -- flour, salt, baking soda & sour milk (these last two cause this bread to rise).
Irish Soda Bread
Ingredients
1 cup cake flour + ½ cup
½ teaspoonful baking soda
½ cup sour milk/buttermilk
Pinch of salt
Method
Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Butter a baking sheet.
Sift all dry ingredients in a bowl.
Mix in the buttermilk to make a soft dough. If it’s too wet/sticky add more flour.
On a floured surface knead the dough for about a minute then pat into a high round.
Make a deep cross on the top with a very sharp knife.
Bake on the baking sheet for about 40 minutes or until it is golden brown and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped.
Notes
Wholegrain flour makes this Wheaten bread, AKA Brown Soda Bread….often served with smoked salmon.
Add ½ cup raisins + 1 egg at step 4 for Fruit Soda Bread, or Spotted Dog, popular in Lent for St. Patrick’s Day.
Farls
From Gaelic ‘fardel’ or ‘four parts’
Ingredients
1 cup cake flour + ½ cup
½ teaspoonful baking soda
½ cup sour milk/buttermilk
Pinch of salt
Oil/butter to grease pan
Method
Sift dry ingredients into a bowl.
Mix in the buttermilk to make a soft dough. If it’s too wet/sticky add more flour.
On a floured surface knead the dough for about a minute then flatten into a circle ½ inch thick.
Cut into quarters, the 4 parts!
Grease a large frying pan, put it on medium heat.
Cook each side of the farls for 5-6 minutes, they should be nicely browned.
Flip farls and cook the other side.
Notes
Potato Farls can be baked stove-top on a hot griddle, or in an oven on a baking sheet. Use a cast-iron skillet in the oven and Lo and Behold! Irish skillet bread)
Add creamed spinach for a green St. Patrick’s Day version or creamed shredded carrots for an orange one!
Boxty or Irish Potato Bread
Traditional Irish potato pancakes. Ratios of potato & flour vary in many recipes!
Ingredients
1 cup cake flour + ½ cup
½ teaspoonful baking soda
½ cup sour milk/buttermilk
Pinch of salt
1 cup mashed potato
Method
Sift dry ingredients into a bowl.
Add the potato and buttermilk.
Mix well to make a thick batter. With dryish potato, you may need more buttermilk; if it was wetter add more flour.
Grease a large frying pan, put it on medium-high heat.
On a floured surface make the boxty in pancake-size shapes.
Fry till golden brown, flip, fry the other side.
Notes
Back in the day, soda breads were cooked in iron pots or griddles in open hearths, thus the famous hard crust, dense texture, and slightly sour tang.