Cheddar, Chive & Bacon Soda Bread

Cheddar Cheese, Chives and bacon turns this traditional Irish soda bread up to eleven. Best to eat this bread warm and fresh from the oven, its perfect for dipping in a Guinness beef stew.

Soda bread is such a fantastic Irish recipe to enjoy on St Patricks Day, its quick and doesn't require any rising time. The baking soda in this bread is what causes it to rise while baking, no yeast in this recipe which means to rising time. The best thing about soda bread is the tasty fixings you can add to it, for this recipe I used old cheddar cheese, fresh chives and bacon. When adding cheese to any baking I prefer to use an old or aged cheddar because it provides such a great flavour.

When forming your soda bread the less you have to knead the dough the better. Mixing can be done almost completely with your hands and then shaping the dough is quick, just form a nice, smooth round ball and place in your buttered cast iron pan. When baking soda bread you can use a cast iron pan, like I did or you can place parchment on a cookie sheet. Scoring the top of the dough with a very sharp knife helps prevent other cracking while baking and aids in a even cook.

Cheddar, Chive & Bacon Soda Bread

Ingredients:

- 4 cups all purpose flour

- 1 tablespoon white sugar

- 1 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 1 teaspoon baking soda

- 1/4 cup chives

- 1 1/2 cups old cheddar cheese, small cubes

- 5 pieces of bacon, crumbled

- 1 3/4 cups buttermilk

- 1 egg

- 2 tablespoons butter, melted

- old cheddar cheese, shredded, to top bread.

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Butter 10 inch cast iron pan and set aside.

2. In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, chives, cheddar cheese and crumbled bacon. In a small bowl whisk together buttermilk, egg and melted butter.

3. Pour wet ingredients into dry, mix with a wooden spoon until dough is wet and shaggy. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and continue to mix by hand, while shaping dough into a large ball. Make sure the top of your dough is smooth, using a sharp knife score the top in a X.

4. Place dough into greased cast iron and place in preheated oven. Bake for 42-45 minutes (with 10 minutes left of baking time top your bread with shredded cheese) or until the bottom of the bread sounds hollow when tapped on.

5. Serve warm with butter or stew.

Soda bread is best when it is fresh and especially when its fresh from the oven but you can also rewarm it up to 4 days after baking it.

Enjoy!

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