Today I baked two loaves of soda bread. After baking the first one I thought I’d try another recipe since I had everything out already. The first one is from Cook’s Illustrated and the second is a Mark Bittman recipe. There are some pretty major differences between the recipes and so I’m curious to taste both. The Cook’s Illustrated one gets pretty fussy about the ingredients, calling for low protein flour and cake flour, cream of tartar and sugar. Soda bread is something that’s been around for a long time, being made by Irish and non-Irish the world over, so a less complicated version (not that either is very complicated!) seemed like a good idea to try. Another major difference between the two is that the Cooks Illustrated version calls for butter both within the bread dough and melted on top. My guess is that the more complex recipe (CI) is going to win out for taste since what’s not to love about butter? But I’d imagine a lot of people make a simple one to go with soups and stews.
Pictured below are both loaves. Mark Bittman on the left and CI on the right. As you can see, the CI one looks a little more nicely browned.
The two breads. Left: Bittman, Right: CI
so what’s the verdict? the CI one definitely looks much prettier! i have to say that i’ve made some mark bittman recipes, and they just never turn out well for me.
i am not a fan of soda bread. i’ve even made it the fussy CI way, thinking that would maybe do the trick. but no. darn! soda bread is one of those things i want to like! i had this amazing brown bread at a restaurant in ireland and i made the CI brown soda bread thinking it would maybe be the same, but it wasn’t at all. i wish i had asked for the recipe at the restaurant. okay, that’s not really relevant, is it?
The Bittman loaf does look pretty sad. I think that I made the CI regular bread once, and wasn’t that impressed. I do really like the oatmeal version, I am a sucker for anything oatmeal though…and no knead breads. Was the recipe in your Irish cookbook much different from these two?
I know you all are waiting with bated breath!
The thing is, there was a dark horse in the running! Amy made a third bread and I was hoping for the recipe so that I could talk about that too. I think it was everyone’s favorite.
i am totally waiting with bated breath! and a dark horse in the running? intriguing!
oh, and george–i don’t know! i should look, huh?
CI is definately pretty. I love the brown bread they have at Black Angus Steak House. I don’t think I’d ever get ambitious enough to bake bread. It smells so good though. That alone is a good reason to bake bread.