I have so much respect for people who can bake… it’s a skill/talent that has eluded many attempts. So, I asked an expert to throw me a lifeline. Nick Malgieri, author of many books on baking, the most recent “A Baker’s Tour”, was in Memphis last week. But his basic tennant — there’s really nothing to it — left me feeling even more insecure.
Using the advice he offered — which will be in my column in Wednesday’s Commercial Appeal food section — I thumbed through his intriguing recipes from around the world and found one that I thought I could pull off: Irish Soda Bread. No yeast, no rising or punching down. No electric mixing bowls with scary hooks. Here tis:
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups buttermilk (plus 1 to 2 tablespoons, if needed)
Set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 450. Stir together the flour, salt and baking soda in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle and add the buttermilk.
Use a rubber spatula to gently stir the buttermilk into the flour mixture, scraping up from the bottom of the bowl and using a movement similar to folding in egg whites. The flour should be evenly moistened and form a soft dough. If there are dry spots after you have mixed in the buttermilk, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of buttermilk; mix gently.
Scrape the dough out onto a floured work surface and fold it over onto itself two or three times. Form the dough into a ball and transfer it to the prepared pan. Press the dough into a 7-inch disk and cut a cross in the top of the dough that extends over the sides of the bread.
Bake the soda bread until it begins to color, about 15 minutes. Lower the heat to 400 degrees. Continue baking until the load is dark golden and baked through, about 20 to 30 additional minutes. You can test the center for doneness with a toothpick.
Slide the soda bread onto a rack to cool slightly before serving. If you want a crisp crust, leave the bread uncovered. If you prefer a tender crust, cover with a towel as it is cooling.
Serve with butter and orange marmalade.
Let me know if you make this and how it turns out… or if you have any no-brainer bread recipes, please share!
Let's eat
Responses to “Bread still baffles me…”
November 15th, 2005 at 10:27 am
There’s no butter or shortening in this? Wouldn’t it turn out kind of heavy?
November 15th, 2005 at 12:08 pm
My issue with baking is that it is a science so you actually have to measure your ingredients. This would never do for those of us who never measure anything. A friend told me one time it aggravated her that Emeril Lagasse never gave the measurements for the ingredients in his recipes. It never occurred to me that you needed them as long as you knew what went in the dish (of course, then you immediately start playing around with it and have some disasters). Hmmm, maybe if I measured I wouldn’t have so many nail holes in my walls…
November 16th, 2005 at 9:33 am
Here is my secret after many, many bricks. One is to warm the water for the yeast in the microwave using the probe so it isn’t too hot and the other is to get the big bags of yeast at Costco or Sam’s which I think is comercial bakers yeast. The opened bag keeps in the freezer for years. I never had a failure after doing these 2 things.
November 16th, 2005 at 11:41 am
Although not a loaf, popovers are my bread of choice. Easy as can be, and very versatile, AND uses ingredients I have at home already. Near impossible to mess up. I’ve given up on anything that requires yeast, except that I do want to learn to make a great focaccia one of these days.
November 16th, 2005 at 9:59 pm
If you want a quick roll for dinner, this works (though I can’t understand why it does):
MAYONNAISE ROLLS
1 cup self-rising flour
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp mayonnaise
1-2 tbsp sugar
6 tsp. butter or margarine
Preheat oven to 350, and melt 1 tsp butter/margarine in the bottom of each cup of a 6-muffin tin. Whisk together the milk and mayo (I prefer Hellman’s, but any kind will work); add the sugar, whisk again, and then stir in flour until lumps are dissolved. Fill muffin tins slightly more than 1/2 full. Bake until golden brown on top, about 18 minutes.
You can increase the sugar to about 4-6 tbsp and add drained blueberries, and it makes a pretty nice blueberry muffin, too.
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