Irish Wheat Bread Recipes

100% WHOLE WHEAT IRISH SODA BREAD

Steps:

• In a big mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, soda, and salt.
• Cut in butter until it reaches a coarse meal consistency. (I started with two knives, then finished the process with my fingers.).
• Add raisins.
• Combine liquids separately. Add liquids to dry ingredients.
• Mix until a soft dough forms. At some point it will become hard to stir it, and it will be better to use your hands. Kneading the dough is the best way to combine all the ingredients completely -- knead it gently until it is smooth (about 3 minutes). You can knead it right there in the mixing bowl.
• Shape the dough into two balls, and place them on a greased cookie sheet. Flatten each ball slightly and cut an X about 1/4" deep in the top of each loaf.
• Bake at 375 for 35 minutes.

PERFECTLY MOIST IRISH WHEATEN BREAD

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Prepare a shallow baking pan with cooking spray.
• Sift together the bread flour, whole wheat flour, salt, baking soda, and 2 teaspoons sugar in a bowl. Cut the margarine into the flour mixture until pieces are nearly indistinguishable. Make a well in the center of the mixture and pour in the oil and buttermilk. Stir with a spatula until dry mixture is completely moistened. Move the dough to a lightly-floured surface. Lightly knead the dough for no more than 1 minute. Place the dough into the prepared pan; pat down and around to form a round loaf. Cut a cross into the top of the loaf with your finger. Brush the top with 1 tablespoon buttermilk; sprinkle 1 teaspoon sugar over the top of the loaf.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C); rotate pan and bake another 30 minutes.
• Allow loaf to cool on a wire rack before slicing.

IRISH WHEATEN BREAD

Steps:

• Pre-heat oven to 190C.
• Then blitz your oats in your food processor or Nutribullet.
• Add all the dry ingredients (flour, oats, baking soda, caster sugar, salt) together and mix well.
• Then add the egg and buttermilk and mix until you have a kind of thick dough. I do this in my mixer.
• Take the dough onto a floured surface and form a ball.
• Then flatten the ball until you have a short cylinder about 5 cm high.
• Mark a cross in the top with a knife and place on a baking tray on some parchment paper or silicone baking sheet.
• Place in the oven for 50 minutes until a dark brown colour.
• Allow to cool on a wire rack.

IRISH GUINNESS BROWN BREAD

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
• In a large bowl, combine the oats, whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the beer, buttermilk, melted butter, and vanilla. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into the well. With your fingers, stir the batter from the middle of the bowl to the outside, until it's well mixed. It will look more like cake batter than bread dough.
• Brush a 9 x 5 x 2 1/2-inch loaf pan with melted butter. Pour the batter into the pan and sprinkle the top with oats. Put the bread in the oven, immediately turn the temperature down to 400 degrees, and bake for 45 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Turn the bread out onto a baking rack and allow to cool completely. Slice and serve with salted butter.

TRADITIONAL IRISH WHEATEN BREAD (BROWN SODA BREAD) RECIPE

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 400 F (200 C or Gas Mark 6).

BALLYMALOE BROWN BREAD

Steps:

• Mix the flours with the salt in a medium bowl.
• Pour 150ml of water into a small bowl and stir in the molasses, then crumble in the fresh yeast, stirring a couple of times. Let stand until it starts to foam on top, about 10 minutes.
• Pour the yeast mixture and the remaining 275ml water into the flour and stir until a batter is formed, which will have the consistency of oatmeal. (If using standard whole-wheat flour, the dough will be sticky, and rather wet.) Let stand 10 minutes.
• Spray a nonstick 9-inch (23cm) loaf pan with nonstick spray and cut a piece of parchment or wax paper to line the bottom of the pan. Scrape the dough into the prepared pan, smooth the top with a spatula or if it's sticky, dampen your hand and use that then drape a kitchen towel over the top (so it's not pressing down on the dough, but just lightly over the top) and let rise in a warm place until the dough reaches the top of the pan, about 20 minutes - although it can vary so just keep an eye on it.
• Before the dough has almost reached the top of the pan, preheat the oven to 450ºF (230ºC). When the dough has reached the top of the pan, bake the bread for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, decrease the heat to 400ºF (200ºC). Run a knife around the outside of the bread to release it from the pan, tip the loaf out of the pan, remove the parchment paper, and place the loaf upside down directly on the baking rack and let bake another 15 minutes, or until done. The bread is ready when you tap the bottom and it sounds hollow. If using an instant-read thermometer, the temperature should read 190ºF (88ºC). Let the bread cool on a wire rack before slicing.
• The bread is best eaten fresh, smeared with lots of good butter, or toasted for breakfast, with jam and butter. It's also nice for open-faced sandwiches, and would be a fine accompaniment to a cheese board, too.

IRISH OATMEAL BREAD

Steps:

• Combine the first 5 ingredients (boiling water through light brown sugar) in the bowl of a stand mixer, and let stand 25 minutes.
• Dissolve the granulated sugar and yeast in warm water; let stand 5 minutes or until foamy. Add to the oat mixture. Combine 1 1/4 cups of the all-purpose flour and all of the whole wheat flour. Gradually add the flours to the oat mixture. Beat at medium speed until well blended. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 8 minutes), adding enough of the remaining all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, to prevent dough from sticking to hands if necessary (dough will still feel moist).
• Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover with plastic wrap, then a clean kitchen towel, and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 1 hour or until doubled in size.
• Punch the dough down; cover with plastic wrap and let rest 5 minutes. Roll the dough into a 14 x 8-inch rectangle on a floured surface. Roll up the rectangle tightly, starting with a short edge, pressing firmly to eliminate air pockets; pinch the seam to seal. Place the loaf, seam side down, in a 9-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 30 minutes or until doubled in size.
• Preheat oven to 350º.
• Uncover dough and bake at 350º for 45 minutes or until loaf is browned on bottom and sounds hollow when tapped. Remove from pan, and cool on a wire rack.

TRADITIONAL BROWN IRISH SODA BREAD

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425F (not fan assisted). Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan and set aside.
• Toast the wheat bran and wheat germ by scattering onto a dry baking sheet and placing into a 350F oven, for 3-4 minutes, stirring once or twice. Watch closely as it can quickly burn if left too long. Remove from oven and immediately remove from the baking sheet to a bowl to cool a few minutes before using.
• *I like to do the toasting when my oven is preheating. When it reaches about the 325F mark, I'll pop in the baking sheet and it. Alternately, just preheat oven to 350F, toast, then increase the oven temperature to 425F once you've finished toasting.
• In a large bowl, combine the all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, toasted wheat bran and wheat germ, rolled oats, brown sugar, baking soda and salt. Whisk to combine well. Add the butter and rub into the flour mixture with your fingertips, until it is the consistency of fine meal. Add about 2/3 of the buttermilk and stir well to combine. Continue adding buttermilk in small increments, until the dough comes together in a moist, but not sticky dough. You may not need to use all of the buttermilk, but reserve any excess for brushing the top. Remove the dough to a work surface and roughly shape into a loaf shape to fit the pan.
• Brush top of loaf with buttermilk and scatter with more rolled oats and press down gently.
• Bake loaf until golden brown and until a long tester inserted in the centre of the loaf comes out clean, about 35-40 minutes. *If your top is well browned but it is not yet testing ready, you can loosely lay a sheet of aluminum foil over the top of the loaf to be able to cook it longer, without it browning too much further. Remove from oven and immediately remove loaf to a cooling rack to cool. Allow the loaf to cool to just warm or completely before slicing.

IRISH WHOLE WHEAT SODA BREAD

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a cookie sheet or an 8- or 9-inch cake pan with cooking spray.
• Sift whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder together until well combined. Add enough buttermilk to make a soft dough that's firm enough to hold its shape.
• Knead on a lightly floured surface until dough is smooth and velvety, 2 to 3 minutes. It will seem very crumbly for a while until everything gets incorporated.
• Form into a round loaf and place on the prepared cookie sheet. Cut a cross on the top of the loaf with a very sharp, floured knife. (The cross is a characteristic of soda bread.)
• Bake in the preheated oven until loaf is browned and sounds hollow when you tap on it, 35 to 40 minutes. Remove to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

IRISH WHEAT BREAD

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease two 8-inch-diameter cake pans. Stir first 5 ingredients in large bowl. Stir in currants. Whisk buttermilk, butter and egg in small bowl. Add to dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Knead mixture briefly in bowl until dough comes together. Turn out onto floured surface and knead until smooth, about 2 minutes.
• Divide dough into 2 pieces. Shape each into round loaf. Transfer to prepared pans. Using sharp knife, cut an x on surface of each loaf, cutting about 1/2 inch deep. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Turn out loaves onto racks; cool.(Can be made 1 day ahead. Wrap in plastic; store at room temperature.)