The Recipe Room

I’ve given this classic soda bread recipe a little twist with the addition of walnuts, which I think work really well with the wholemeal version of the bread and are incredibly tasty in combination with cream cheese.  Irish brown soda bread with cream cheese and smoked salmon would make a perfect light supper for those of you celebrating St Patrick’s Day, and whose tummies were heartily filled at lunch time with a roast welsh lamb with garlic and rosemary recipe.  Irish flour is traditionally made from soft wheat so, if you can’t get hold of the real thing, you’ll get a more authentic result if you use a pastry or cake-making flour, as this is also made from soft wheat.  I have heard it said that Guinness can be used in place of the buttermilk, but I’ve never tried that!

What you need:

• 175g wholemeal flour, self-raising
• 175g plain or cake making flour (soft flour where possible)
• ½ tsp salt
• 300ml buttermilk
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1-2 generous handfuls of chopped walnuts
• 1-2 generous handfuls of raisins
• Tub of good quality cream cheese
• Packet of good quality smoked salmon slices

What to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC.
2. Mix the 2 flours along with the walnuts, raisins, the bicarbonate of soda and the salt, in a large bowl.
3. Create a well in the centre of the flour, pour almost all of the buttermilk in, then quickly but carefully, bind the mixture together using a large fork.  Add the remainder of the buttermilk if necessary to form dough that is neither too sticky, nor too stiff in consistency, working the dough as little as possible.
4. Take a baking tray and lightly dust it with plain flour.  Mould the dough into a ball and slightly flatten it before placing it onto the tray.
5. Bake the dough in the oven for around 30 minutes, or until the loaf gives a hollow sound when you tap the base.  When cooked, turn the bread out onto a cooling rack.
6. Serve warm if possible with the cream cheese and the smoked salmon.  Delicious!

Enjoy with a glass of chilled white wine, or a Guinness if you prefer!

Less than 30 minutes to prepare, 30 minutes to cook

Makes: 6 servings

Tags: bicarbonate of soda, bread, buttermilk, cream cheese, festival food, Irish Brown Soda Bread, plain flour, seasonal food, smoked salmon, soft flour, walnuts, wholemeal flour

This entry was posted on Wednesday, 2 May, 2012 at 10:01 am by Toni Simpson and is filed under Less than 1 hour, Main Courses, Meal for 6 people. You can follow any responses to this entry through the feed RSS 2.0. You can leave a comment, or make a trackback from your own blog.