Friday, March 18, 2011

Please Don’t Hate Me!

 

I left you.

I’m sorry. I have an excuse I swear!

Can we still be friends?

I can bribe you with bread!

It’s delicious, easy to make, and seriously, you can’t screw this up bread!

 

Irish Soda Bread (or Brown bread?)

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

People celebrate by wearing green, eating cabbage, drinking absurd amounts of alcohol. I celebrate it by making bread!

It honestly is the easiest bread you can make. It took me a whole 15 minutes from start to finish to get this bread in the oven. FIFTEEN! If you don’t know anything about bread, that is unheard of!

Soda bread is what I make when I’m lazy.

Instead of using yeast, soda bread uses the magical reaction between the acidity inIMG_1758 buttermilk and baking soda to create delicious lift. The result is a slightly more dense bread, which is fantastic with soup or just with some butter and/or jam. It’s more of a slice and enjoy bread than a sandwich bread, but I’m sure you could prove me wrong.

There are so many debates, statements and lost friendships over what “traditional” Irish soda bread is. Apparently raisins and caraway seeds are not traditional? Frankly I don’t care. I’m not Irish, I’m not really traditional, and I think raisins are a tasty addition to this bread…

Unfortunately I seemed to have misplaced my currents at the moment (who loses food…?), so my bread had none. I assure you, I have made it both ways and they both are fantastic.

No buttermilk? No problem! I don’t know who keeps buttermilk lying around in their fridge. And being cheap and lazy, basically any time a recipe asks for buttermilk I just substitute warmed milk with about a Tbs of either lemon juice or vinegar. MAKE SURE YOU HEAT THE MILK!! Then just let it sit for about 10-15 min, and bam! Instant buttermilk. Problem solved. I saved the day.

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OK anyways. 

Go make this bread. 15 minutes + about 40 minutes of baking until deliciousness. Hell put raisins in it! I wont tell!

Brown Soda Bread

Friends forever?

-Leah

PS. I made a fancy pants soda bread last year that had ground black pepper and chopped fresh rosemary. AMAZING! (few TBS of each) Give it a try if you’re feeling adventurous.