I is for Irish Soda Bread (Jessica)

Hello!

This week, my kitchen went international. I tested out Irish Soda Bread! Yes, I know this bread is typically made around St. Patrick's Day, and yes, I know that holiday is in March, but who doesn't like bread?! And an easy bread at that! No crazy yeast here. No waiting for dough to rise for hours and hours. And for people who can't eat gluten...I'll make some recipes for you soon, promise!

Here's some information from the source of all things (aka: Wikipedia) about Soda Bread: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soda_bread. An interesting history, no?

In a true feat of blogging fantastic-ness, I actually got the chance to bake this bread over in Jennifer's kitchen! So I guess it was really her kitchen that went international this week. ;) Her oven is finicky, but luckily she knew the tricks to keeping the temperature right at 400 degrees and, after 50 minutes, I had a lovely loaf of bread.

Irish Soda Bread
from this 101 Cookbooks recipe

Ingredients: 
Non-stick cooking spray
3 cups whole wheat bread flour (I used white whole wheat because that's what I had)
1 cup unbleached white flour
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 3/4 cup buttermilk, plus a little more
2 ounces butter (I used Kerrygold salted butter, as suggested, it's the BEST)
1 egg

Directions: 
1. Spray 9x5 loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Melt the butter over medium heat.
3. Lightly beat the egg and gradually add the buttermilk while stirring. Beat in the melted butter.
4. In another bowl, sift and mix the dry ingredients. Stir in the buttermilk mixture. Once mixed, check the consistency, it should be on the wetter side. If it's too dry, add small splashes of buttermilk to reach desired consistency (I didn't know what this meant exactly, but I added probably another 1/4 cup of buttermilk so the dough was nice and sticky!)
5.  Pour dough into pan and bake at 400 degrees for 50 minutes until dough has risen and is brown. Let cool in pan and remove once cool.
6. Serve with butter!

I didn't really take any pictures during the process because it was SO easy, so here are two of the finished loaf!

Review: 
I served this bread at book club last night and I think it went over pretty well. I had actually never tasted Irish Soda Bread (gasp!), so I had to rely on my guests to tell me if it tasted right; apparently it did! It's a pretty plain bread and fairly dense. It would be delicious with a lentil stew, beef stew, or even a tomato bisque. Served alone, it is imperative that you serve it with butter!

As an extra bonus this week:
While this bread was baking, Jennifer and I experimented with some grilling. We had seen some delicious-looking crostini recipes in various cooking magazines and we recreated them! SO easy and SO good. The bread was the highlight (sliced thin, brushed with olive oil before grilling and rubbed with garlic after).

The one on the far right was my favorite: goat cheese, roasted red peppers, and basil.

Well, actually, the bread was the highlight only until we ate dessert! We had grilled peaches, vanilla ice cream, and cinnamon! A perfect combination of sweet and tart. We could not stop talking about how amazingly refreshing and simple it was. You must try it right now! A perfect way to spruce up your typical summer barbecue and impress your friends! :)

See you next week!

-Jessica