New product Wednesday: Irish soda bread

by Teresa Gubbins

Crusty brown Irish soda bread, studded with raisins -- despite what the NYTimes claims.

Just discovered this week at the Dallas branch of Central Market: Irish soda bread.

The bakery there started selling the brown round loaves a week or so ago; the staff at the Plano store (after delivering a droning lecture on how every Central Market is different) said they begin selling the bread in the first weeks of March, up until St. Patrick's Day.

The "soda" is baking soda, which is what makes the bread rise (as opposed to yeast). Breads without yeast are called quick breads; the category includes muffins and the perennial zucchini bread. Quick breads usually have a lot of butter, and that's true of Irish soda bread. But whereas quick breads are usually ultra-moist, almost greasy, soda bread is crumbly and dense, like scones.

The one ingredient that makes Irish soda bread taste like Irish soda bread: caraway seeds. It's great if you can find one with the seeds still whole; the version at Central Market has only random whole seeds, with most of the caraway flavor coming from ground-up seeds that are mixed throughout the dough. Most Irish soda breads also have raisins (although this New York Times story claims that true Irish soda bread has neither caraway seeds nor raisins, but an argument could be made that they're just stirring the pot and are dead wrong).

Irish soda bread is not hard to make at home. Most versions come out rather pale; the one at Central Market is unusual in that it's very dark. A member of the baking staff confessed that he didn't know how they got them to be so dark. One exceptional aspect of their offering is that it's baked until the bottom gets very, very crusty and brown. People often slather butter all over them; if you get it while it's fresh, it's not hard to skip the butter.

Seasonal breads of any kind are cool. Spring is an especially hot time, from the ticky-tacky Mardi Gras King Cake in February all the way to Easter-y hot cross buns in April.