Making traditional Irish wheaten bread like my Grandmother used to make

Wheaten bread is a staple part of most Irish diets.  Shop bought is ok but you really can’t beat the taste of home-made.  Thankfully, when I was growing up, I had a steady supply made by my much loved Grandmother, Madeleine who lived with us.  

I was nine years old when my Grandmother (Nana) came to live with us. We all adored her, her funny ways and her overwhelming kindness.

She was always very keen to help around the house and especially in the kitchen. I will admit I wasn’t always happy when she was on dinner duty as she loved to cook very traditional dishes with meat and two veg while I craved my mum’s more adventurous and delicious dishes.

The one area that Nana really excelled in was making traditional Irish breads which were always on the table, steaming hot, when my sister and I (and often a selection of our friends) came home from school. Nana’s specialities were soda, wheaten and treacle bread which she would make in her mother’s (my great grandmother) old stone Hartleys jam jars which made wonderful cylindrical loaves. I’m not sure why, but somehow these taste better than the traditional loaf shape.  I loved learning how to make these breads with her and the comforting feeling of working with the dough, then using her size 10 knitting needle as a skewer to check that the bread was cooked. After she died, the jam jars lay abandoned as it was just too painful to look at them. At the same time, there was no way we could ever throw them out!

When my parents eventually downsized from the family home, they were having a ruthless clear out and somehow I found myself rescuing the stone jam jars from the junk pile and bringing them home where I will admit that they sat in a cupboard for a very long time.  I was always a little bit anxious about using them in case the bread didn’t work and it would just make me sad.  Now after many years I have taken on the mantle and am honoured to carry on Nana’s tradition.

To this day, when I make this simple bread,  I am overwhelmed by memories of Nana and  am transported back to childhood and the comforting smell of freshly baked bread- heaven! Would you believe I still use Nana’s original knitting needle to check the bread?  Its a bit out of shape but it definitely feels like part of the tradition!

Don’t panic if you don’t happen to have your great grandmother’s jam jars hanging about the house- this recipe works just as well in a lined loaf tin. Use a skewer instead of a knitting needle.

The recipe and instructions are below.