Bake some easy Irish Soda Bread for St. Patrick's Day

HAPPY ST.PATRICK'S DAY

March 17, 2016

Seems like everyone is IRISH today but even though I have a lot of different cultures in me I am pretty sure there isn't any Irish but I can easily become Irish inspired by FOOD today.

I love making fresh bread and I don't do it often enough because it takes time but this Irish Soda Bread is as easy as making Beer Bread.  This was my first attempt at Irish Soda Bread but I think it turned out pretty well.

I followed a pretty basic recipe.  Traditional Soda bread has only a few ingredients.

INGREDIENTS:  

4 cups of flour
1t sp of Baking Soda
1 Tbsp of Salt
1/2 Tbsp of Sugar
2 cups of Buttermilk

Directions.
Mix all the dry ingredients and then pour the buttermilk in all at once and mix with a wooden spoon or even your hands.   Fold it out onto a floured board and just bring it together until you can form a ball.   Cut an X in the top of the bread with a knife and then place it on a sheet of parchment paper.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees and place a Dutch Oven (Le Creuset) is what I used into the oven to heat up.  Once the Dutch Oven is hot take it out of the oven and then lift the bread dough with the parchment paper and put it in the Dutch Oven and place the lid on it and put it back into the oven for 30 minutes.   Take it out of the oven and take the bread out and place it on a cookie sheet and place it back into the oven for another 15-20 minutes or until it's browned all around and has a crunchy exterior.   Let it cool for a few minutes before cutting it.   You can add currants to it for a sweeter bread but I skipped it.   Serve with butter and honey if you like or along with a good Irish Stew and a Guinness to wash it down.

I was going to make Colcannon but it's getting late.  I had to go out to the store to get the buttermilk for the bread so I didn't get to it until later than I planned to.  I wanted to get it done quickly so I could take a photo while there was still natural light outside.

So go and be IRISH for a DAY and make some Soda Bread.  It's pretty easy.