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I really never make yeast breads, but I often bake loaves of soda bread...it's not a sweet soda bread, but a savory one that makes great toast, sandwiches, goes well with soups. It's fast to mix, fast to bake, delicious, not fussy, and has only a few ingredients.
-1 cup buttermilk (if none on hand, you can add two tablespoons of distilled white vinegar to regular milk and let it sit for about 10 minutes - I've made it both ways, and it turns out the same either way)
-2 cups all-purpose flour
-1 tablespoon white sugar
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions:
1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a baking sheet or line with parchment paper. In a bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.
2.Gradually stir the buttermilk into the flour mixture until the dough just comes together, and turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface. Don't overhandle, and make sure hands are well-floured.
3.Knead a few times, and shape into a round. Place the dough onto the prepared baking sheet. With a sharp, floured knife, cut an X shape into the top of the dough to release steam and help the bread keep its round shape.
4.Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, about 30-35 minutes, transfer to a wire rack to cool.
*This is NOT a sweet, fruit-filled soda bread...don't expect it to taste sweet, despite the small amount of sugar in the recipe. I don't like many commercial soda breads, because to me, they are sweet to the point of being big scones. This is a more hearty, dense, savory bread, good for slicing and buttering and eating with stews, brisket and cabbage and potatoes, shepherd's pie, etc.
I don't know...the original recipe I worked off actually didn't use buttermilk at all. The directions in it were for curdling the milk with that amount of vinegar. I just used buttermilk, knowing that milk + vinegar is a common buttermilk substitution. Mostly, I use buttermilk for the recipe, but part of the beauty of the recipe is that it requires no special ingredients, and I know a lot of people don't keep buttermilk on hand...
Oh, it's in the supermarket -- I'm in Podunk PA and my local grocery store stocks it, so EVERYONE must have it. It's a red lid/orange + white "can" (cardboard tub thing) with a big smiling chef face. I think he has a mustache and a chef hat. Buttermilk powder, just add water. Not cheap -- equivalent to the nonfat dry milk boxes I guess. We try to always have it in the pantry, but I much prefer fresh if I can get it.
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