Soda Bread for Tea with St. Patrick

St. Patrick probably ate his soda bread with butter and bogberry or blueberry jam, and drank mint tea with it. Ireland is too cool for wheat, but the Irish of St Pat’s time had oats and could have grown barley. Caraway plants grow pretty far north, so I believe the Irish recipes that contain their seeds are probably ancient. I do not believe grapes grew in Ireland before the global warming that preceded the Little Ice Age of the mid-1800s.

Bread back between 300 and 400 C.E., really was the staff of life. Potatoes were still more than a thousand years in Ireland’s future. Though high-ranking the Romans over in continental Europe had brown cane sugar from Sicily, the Irish depended on honey for sweetening foods, as an antiseptic for wounds, and as a preservative for their bread.

To reproduce as best I could the bread that sustained the 4th century bishop in Ireland, I used barley flour, eggs, soda with vinegar for leavening, honey for sweetness and to keep the bread fresh, and caraway seeds for flavor. Instead of the peat fire before which St. Patrick’s bread baked, I worked out my American oven temperatures to produce a nicely browned round loaf.

Barley flour is not quite gluten free, but is low on the Glycemic Index. If you are sensitive to gluten, you might choose to make sorghum bread. It’s delicious but a bit gritty and very crumbly. Using part sorghum, part tapioca flour, and part brown rice flour works better. This wholegrain barley flour bread has a little gluten, a smooth texture and superb flavor. The egg or eggs add protein and reduce crumbling. Let the loaf cool before slicing.

IRISH SODA BREAD
Makes 1 round loaf Or two 3 1/4x5 ¾ inch loaves
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2 to 2 ¼ cups barley flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons caraway seeds
¼ cup soft butter or 2 Tablespoons light olive oil
2/3 cup milk
1 Tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons vinegar
1or 2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda

Sift flour, salt, soda and baking powder into mixing bowl. Stir in caraway seeds. Cut in butter if using. Stir in raisins. Warm milk. Dissolve honey in it. Stir in vinegar and oil if not using. Combine the vinegar-soured milk with egg and fork-beat well. Stir in baking soda. Stir into flour mixture..

Shape in a ball. Place in a greased and floured round 7-inch pie pan or ceramic casserole dish. Or make two loaves and place them in 3 ¼-x 5 ¾-inch greased and floured pans.

Bake 10 minutes at 400 degrees. Reduce heat to 350. Bake casserole bread about 40 more minutes for 1 hour altogether, or bake as small loaves 30 minutes Test for doneness with a cake tester or wooden pick inserted in the center of the loaf. When it comes out clean, the loaf or loaves are done. Cool in casserole or pans for 10 minutes. Turn out on wire rack to cool more before cutting. Slather slices with butter and honey and or jam.

Copyright Marj Watkinss. 2012