There are many, no really, too many measurement conversion sites out on the web. You can calculate anything. Finding the right site can be a challenge. After some false starts, I found out that 500 grams is equivalent to 4 and 1/2 cups of flour. I hope that’s right. (Worry) the site had a warning of sorts that this was not exact or something. Oh heck, I forged boldly onward.
Cooking Measurement Equivalents — Infoplease.com
This is an international effort. At this point I want to mention my 2 favorite food blogs – “Richard’s Table” (in English) and “Sabina Kookt!” (in Dutch). They are both fantastic cooks and writers who have taught me plenty about food prep and artistry.
The dry-ish ball of dough in the oven is supposed to turn into Irish Soda Bread. It a recipe from Sabina, hot off the web and probably in her oven in the Netherlands. Flash! I am curious about buttermilk and inspired to make it as it is bread from my heritage on my mother’s side of the family.
My mother, who just turned 95, was never a baker, but she told me once about baking bread every Saturday with her grandmother. That’s the only mention of baking that Mother handed down to me. Oh, there was one time when she bought Pillsbury pie dough sticks and had me roll out the dough for pie. That was my first contact with the alien dough. It was a strangely soothing experience, rolling and smoothing the magic stuff into a new form. Pie. My obsession has an origin. (Light bulb goes on).
This bread I think needed more moisture than what the recipe called for in buttermilk. There is a theme building about climate and moisture in my baking experiments. Netherlands wettish climate. Mine not so wet today.
Bell rings on timer. Okay it looks like a crusty ball and weighs as much as a small bowling ball. Well almost as much. I put it back in for 5 more minutes. Yes, I know it won’t make it lighter, but it will make it crustier. Crusty can be redeeming in bread? Right?
Ring! It looks done. Test it by tapping it. If it sounds hollow, then it’s done.
This unbelievably easy bread recipe is “via via”as the Dutch like to say, from Sabina at Sabina kookt! http://sabinakookt.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/iers-sodabrood, to me then to you and originated in Dutch (and no, that’s not what they speak in Denmark). It’s from Boer & Kok.
My translation:
Buttermilk Irish Soda Bread
Sift 4 1/2 cups of flour
Add:
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
1 2/3 cup of buttermilk approximately
Mix the butter milk gradually into a depression that you made in the flour.
Lightly work it into a ball and slash an x on the top. It looks a little rough.
Place it in the oven on a lightly floured cooking sheet
Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes
Then lower the temperature to 400 degrees for 30 minutes.
Eat with a smear of Irish butter. ( Just did!) Smiling now.
No guarantees…I am an amateur cook after all. Have fun cooking!
Now for one more slice. Yum.
