Irish Soda Bread

Four days in Ireland was all it took to make me fall in love with "the green island." I wasn't even there during the beautiful, more tourist-season months, but I thought the land gorgeous and the people extremely friendly. I went for a few days over spring break during my college freshman year and met up with my friend Sara, who is known for her international travel shenanigans.

Sara -who is even smaller than I am- and I hitch-hiked, took buses and trains, walked, and even took a ferry during our European adventure and, amazingly, we both made it back to the US unscathed. Although there were definitely some mishaps, like wandering around the boat dock on a wet and cold night for over an hour trying to figure out how to get to the entrance of the boat and while trying hold on to way too much luggage, including a banjo. Not gonna lie, I think we might have cried in frustration and exhaustion at some point.

However insane parts of our trip were, I look back on it and smile, especially when it comes to soda bread. Every where we went, there was always soda bread and soup on the menu. Soda bread is wonderful when fresh out of the oven and spread with real butter (don't even think about degrading this wonderful bread with such an atrocity as margarine).

The weather here in Kentucky has been cold and wet the past few days, so it put me to craving some Irish soda bread, which I happily made with the little two-year old boy that I babysit. It turned out great and can even be considered good for you -if you don't smother it with butter and a good amount of orange marmalade.

Irish Soda Bread

*yes, I know "real" Irish soda bread has buttermilk or sour milk, but the plain yogurt really works well in this. All of you die-hard Irish soda bread purists, please forgive me.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups bread flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup wheat bran

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

4 Tbs. (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 1/2 cups plain yogurt

Directions:

Preheat an oven to 425°F. Place a baking sheet in the oven to preheat.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, oats, bran, baking soda and salt. Using a pastry blender or your own two hands, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the yogurt and stir to blend, forming a rough ball. The dough will start rising as soon as the baking soda comes in contact with the yogurt, so work quickly to form the dough. Knead the dough for 30 seconds or so to ensure that everything is mixed in.

Take baking sheet out of the oven (or ask someone else to do it for you, since your hands will be covered in dough). Form the dough into a dome and place on baking sheet, then sprinkle the dough with flour, spreading the flour lightly over the surface. Using a sharp knife, cut a shallow X in the loaf from one side to the other.

Bake until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly. Serve warm. Any leftover bread can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days, or in the fridge for a week, but mine never lasts that long.

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Breakfast and Brunch, by Georgeanne Brennan, Elinor Klivans, Jordan Mackay and Charles Pierce (Oxmoor House, 2007).