Irish Soda Bread

I thought I would be a tad cliche and make an Irish bread for March. Despite being corny, I am very glad I chose Ireland as my second international bread stop. It was a very educational experience.

The Emerald Isle

 I had a grocery store gimmick cookbook for St. Patrick's Day that I bought a couple of years ago. I immediately went to it for my Irish bread recipe, which turned out to be soda bread. It sounded like a dessert bread, with lots of sugar and some fruit. I wanted to see if I could find something more dinner-like and less dessert-ish.

So I fired up google. That's where I learned about recipe morphing. It turns out that originally, Irish soda bread was NOT a dessert-ish bread, but over time it became one. The website I found most interesting is here.I also learned that it was traditionally baked in a covered pot called a "bastible," which as it turns out was basically one of my favorite cooking tools!

A Dutch oven!

Wal-Mart is taking over....

Irish soda bread is pretty simple, so here goes:

4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
14 oz. buttermilk (by the way, powdered buttermilk is great!)





Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients together.
 
Then slowly add the buttermilk to form a sticky dough. Place on floured surface and lightly knead.






 Shape into a round flat shape and cut a cross in the top of the dough.


Pop the round loaf into the Dutch oven and bake it for about 45 minutes. If you want to make it in a regular oven, put it in a round cake pan and add a lid for the last 15 minutes of baking.

Tasty Soda Bread!

Try it out! It's pretty good, especially with stew. But just a heads up, it doesn't keep well for more than a few days.