Irish soda bread kneading process
I do understand how soda reacts with buttermilk but I do not know when. Does this happens during the baking process or does the reactions starts soon as they are mixed together?
The question i want to ask, if the time for mixing should be minimized to get higher rise during bake? Like do a quick dough with hands. Or its safe to leave it mixing in food processor?
or maybe its better to add soda later in mixing process?
Best Answer
You don't knead soda bread for long, some methods call for no kneading at all. One reason is texture, soda bread should be a bit crumbly, stretchy isn't what you are aiming for. The other reason is to get the most out of your leavening agent. Baking soda and buttermilk (or any other acid) will start to react immediately on contact, although the reaction is much slower at room temperature than oven temperature, so the longer your wait the less rise you'll get.
I like to knead my soda bread for about 60 seconds, just for a bit more structure as I like it that way, but that's as far as I go. I do it all by hand, a mixer is overkill in my opinion as you'll spend more time cleaning up than you will actually mixing anything. Others may have a different view on that, there's no right or wrong answer to that one.
You can't add the soda later in the process because you won't get an even distribution, it needs to be mixed in the flour at the beginning.
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Should Irish soda bread be kneaded?
Irish Soda Bread requires no yeast, no resting and no kneading. This means you can go from ingredients to eating warm bread in under an hour. It uses bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) and buttermilk as its leavening agents and they don't require any resting.Why do you not knead soda bread?
Soda bread contains no yeast and is ideal to make when you want fresh bread without the hassle. What is this? Irish soda bread is a very easy bread to make and does not require any kneading at all since it has no yeast. This is what the Irish call Irish brown bread.Can you over knead soda bread?
You spent too much time kneading the dough. Baking soda starts to react and release its gas as soon as it comes into contact with the sour milk. Take too long and the gas will escape before the bread is baked. Kneading will also cause chewy gluten to form.How much do you knead soda bread?
If you feel like you have to knead the dough together, don't knead more than 5-6 times, max. Too much kneading will create a hard dense crumb on the bread. Rule of thumb with no yeast breads, the less kneading the softer the crumb.Irish Soda Bread: Knead \u0026 Shape
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