Easy Irish Soda Bread for a great St. Patrick’s Day Celebration
When you think of Texas you might not think of the Irish, and while I’m not Irish myself (except for St. Patty’s Day, when I kick back a few glasses of Jameson or Tullamore Dew), most of my closest childhood friends are of Irish descent. This recipe is a basic Irish soda bread, (adapted and edited from official the Guinness Beer recipe blog) that I like to prepare for St. Patrick’s Day gatherings.
Unlike many Irish soda bread recipes, this one yields a light, airy and tender crumb with just a hint of crispiness from the cheese as it oozes out during baking. The bread is quick and easy to make and is slightly spicy with minced pickled jalapeños baked in. Try corned beef brisket between two toasted slices of this bread for a different take on your St. Patrick’s Day meal.
To all my friends from the old neighborhood…this one’s for you!
Fresh Jalapeño Irish cheddar soda bread straight out of the oven.
In a dry pan over medium-high heat, toast the caraway seeds until fragrant and slightly toasted.
Toasted caraway seeds are not very different in color from the raw seed. Watch for the first wisps of smoke, when the smell of the caraway becomes fragrant. Once they are cooked, pour into a cool bowl to stop the cooking process and reserve.
Get all of your ingredients ready.
Melt 6 tbsp of butter over low heat while working on the dry and wet mixtures. Be careful not to burn.
Baking is all about precision, so measure your ingredients carefully. I use the backside of a knife to skim off any excess dry ingredients to make sure the volume is level.
A good set of measuring spoons will allow you to skim off the excess as well. Check out the Equipment Resource page on this blog for a reasonably priced set.
Although you can mix this bread batter by hand with a kitchen spoon, I find it helpful to use a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook to get the batter started.
Add all of the carefully measured dry ingredients to the mixing bowl.
Using a spoon or spatula, mix the dry ingredients thoroughly.
In a separate bowl, mix all of the wet ingredients (except for the chopped jalapeno and cheese).
The wet ingredients mix easily together.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl fitted with a dough hook.
Run the dough hook on low to start, then increase the speed to medium. This will help the wet and dry ingredients mix.
Every now and then, stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl to help pull in more of the dry ingredients into the wet.
Add the chopped pickled jalapeno to the mix. The excess moisture of the pickled jalapeno will help pull in the rest of the dry ingredients. Warning: use pickle jalapenos only. Fresh jalapeno would be too hot.
Stop the mixer after a short time and scrape the last bit of dry mix into the batter.
Measure out 4 oz of sharp Irish cheese, diced in small cubes.
Gently fold the cheese into the bread batter.
When everything has just come together and the batter is fully incorporated, STOP mixing. The most common problem I see is overworked dough which makes for very tough bread. Unlike a yeasted dough, this bread does not need to be kneaded repeatedly.
Place the soda bread batter into a well oiled bread pan. Pick the bread pan up and drop down sharply on a wooden cutting board to eliminate any bubbles. Help smooth the batter out to be sure it is evenly distributed through the pan. Top with flaky sea salt and place into a preheated 400 degree oven for 45-55 minutes.
Once baked, I always check with an instant read thermometer, the internal temperature should be 195-200 degrees Fahrenheit.
With a very thin knife, carefully run around the edge of the bread pan to help loosen the bread from the pan. Roll the bread out on a cooling rack.
Allow the bread to cool for about 15-20 minutes before slicing with a very sharp serrated bread knife or electric knife. The bread will be very soft, delicious and almost cake-like. The melted and caramelized Irish cheese will leave a slightly crunchy exterior. Each time I make this bread it disappears quickly!
Irish Jalapeno and Sharp Irish Cheddar Soda Bread hot out of the oven with Kerrygold Irish butter. Absolutely delicious!
Irish Soda Bread with Sharp Irish Cheddar and Jalapeno
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 whole egg
- 8 oz buttermilk
- 6 tbsp butter, melted Preferably Kerrygold Irish Butter
- 1/2 cup jalapenos, pickled and chopped
- 4 oz Irish cheddar, in small cubes Preferably Kerrygold Aged Cheddar with Irish Whiskey. Kerrygold Dubliner will also work.
- 1 tbsp caraway seeds, freshly toasted
- 1 1/2 tsp Irish sea salt, like Celtic Sea Salt brand Maldon Sea Salt is a good substitute
Instructions
- In a dry skillet, add the caraway seeds and cook, watching for the first wisps of smoke. When the smell of caraway becomes fragrant, remove from heat and pour into a cool bowl to stop the cooking process and reserve.
- Combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar) together in a mixing bowl for stand mixer and mix well.
- Mix the egg, buttermilk and melted butter separately and reserve.
- Chop the pickled jalapenos. Dice the cheddar into small cubes.
- Preheat an oven to 400 degrees. Generously spray cooking oil on the baking dish/pan. This bread has cheese in it that will ooze out while baking. Make sure the pan is thoroughly coated with oil.
- Set up a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook over the mixing bowl containing the dry mix. (Alternatively you can mix this with a large kitchen spoon in a bowl.) With the dough hook mixing on the slowest setting, add the wet ingredients to the dry. Slowly increase the speed of the dough hook, stopping every now and then to scrape down the sides to help the flour to mix into the wet ingredients. The dough will still be a little dry. Don't worry about the unmixed portion for now.
- Add the chopped pickled jalapenos and the cubed Irish cheddar. Gently fold these into the dough mixture. The added moisture of the jalapenos should be enough to mix in the last of the flour. Use a large metal kitchen spoon to mix the last bits of flour and wet ingredients together. Be careful not to over mix the dough. Over mixing will make the soda bread tough. Mix the dough just enough to incorporate everything.
- Pour the batter into the prepared bread pan and robustly smack the pan down on a safe cutting board surface to get rid of any bubbles. If needed, work the dough a little to even it out in the pan.
- Add the finishing salt by sprinkling it along the top of the bread and place into a preheated oven at 400 degrees. Bake for 45-50 minutes. With an instant read thermometer, test the bread for doneness. The bread should be 190-195 to be cooked through. Don't worry if it's cooked up to 205 degrees it's still fine, but immediately take out of the oven.
- Once the bread is cooked, the top should have a slightly golden brown appearance. Take a long thin knife and run it gently around the edge to loosen the bread from the pan. Carefully upend the bread pan onto a wire cooling rack. (If you don't have a cooling rack, you can can elevate the bread slightly using two wooden spoons placed underneath.) The idea is to allow air underneath the bread to be sure it cools properly without sweating, which would make the bottom soggy.