After frolicking around Ireland for a few weeks, I've returned with renewed inspiration for the kitchen and a desire to infuse my meals with the hearty warmth that the Irish seem to just innately possess.
You'll have to forgive me because I'm more than slightly obsessed with Ireland, and this blog will surely reflect that for at least the next few weeks.
Throughout County Kerry, which is where I spent most of my time (and where I hope to move someday), I encountered fantastic food- little organic cafes, health food stores and of course pubs. Every meal was accompanied by cider, guinness or tea, and almost every meal included potatoes and brown bread, or soda bread, a staple in the Irish diet, which is as easy as it is nutritious and wonderfully satisfying.
It is made in various ways- but always contains buttermilk and baking soda which are the leavening agents (yeast doesn't do well in damp Ireland). It is made traditionally with oatmeal or graham flour, which is courser than regular whole wheat flour because it contains the germ and the bran of the wheat.
As with any simple recipe (or any recipe at all, for that matter), the quality of the ingredients is of utmost importance- flour goes rancid easily, and organic, yellow butter will add tremendous flavor, as well as the buttermilk, which, again, should be organic and non-homogenized. Baking soda as well, only keeps for about 6 months, and one should only use the non-aluminum kind as aluminum is very toxic.
Since graham flour is hard to find outside of Ireland, you can substitute a little less than one-half cup wheat bran for one-half cup all-purpose flour as well as 2 teaspoons wheat germ (which needs to be fresh and kept refrigerated, since it spoils easily).
Since the coarseness of the flour as well as the effectiveness of the baking soda will vary, you'll need to experiment and maybe make a couple batches before you get it just right, but fortunately it's incredibly simple.
RECIPE:
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 3/4 cup Irish, quick cooking (non instant) oatmeal
- 1 cup whole-wheat graham flour (or 1/2 cup white plus almost half cup bran and a little germ)
- 2 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 4 tablespoons cold unsalted kerrygold butter, cut into small pieces
- 1 2/3 cups buttermilk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.
Whisk together the flours, oatmeal, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a large bowl. With a pastry blender or your fingertips, blend in butter until it resembles small peas. Add buttermilk all at once; stir with a fork until mixture holds together.
Lightly dust top of loaf with flour. Cut a 3/4-inch-deep cross in top, reaching almost all the way to edges. This symbolizes the Celtic cross, which is said to bless the bread and those who eat it.
Bake, rotating sheet halfway through, until a skewer inserted, comes out clean and it's nicely brown (about 1 hour and 20 minutes). Try to let it cool a bit before you slather it with big pats of kerrygold butter and devour it!
It freezes well and can be used later as a topping for apple crisps when sugar is added to it.
