About a month ago I tried a whole slew of Irish soda bread recipes. The first recipe claimed to be a traditional family recipe handed down from someone's grandma. It was so salty and bitter I almost had to spit it out. The next version I tried resulted in a dense, dry and rather bland bread with a baking soda aftertaste. I called it quits until a few weeks later when I discovered several cups of sour milk in my fridge. Rather than dumping said milk down the drain, I decided to give soda bread another go. This time around I baked the loaf in a covered casserole dish. Bingo. Except that I then proceeded to eat nearly half the loaf while standing over the stove.
Baking the loaf in a covered casserole dish traps steam and prevents the bread from drying out. It also produces a loaf with a crisp crust but a soft, light interior. I was pleasantly surprised with how fluffy the texture is even though the loaf has no yeast. Better yet it takes only a few minutes to come together and requires no rising time. It takes just 45 minutes from flour canister to mouth, and apparently only a few minutes more before it's half gone.
