No way! Still Cookin! Irish Soda Bread

Well baking. And that is where I feel most comfortable. I just made some Irish Soda Bread!!!


Well its in the oven, baking (see the butter dripping itself all over the bread?):



So I am in love with all things bready: biscuits, scones, muffins, etc. Though I have never made a bread, I thought it would be easy to bake some soda bread. Why? Because there is no yeast! I have never used yeast and do not have any on stock. Maybe one day but just not right now.

Most soda bread recipes ask for buttermilk. I usually do not have buttermilk. I think though I need to because most recipes I see use it. And though I have read about making buttermilk with milk and lemon juice, I also had a huge thing of yogurt that needed to be used.

Oh My God, RAINBOW!!! Do you see it?!?!



So here we are, with an Irish Soda Bread recipe using yogurt. Shockingly its from Stoneyfields website: a milking company.

http://recipes.stonyfield.com/recipes/showRecipe?id=131

Ingredients

3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup dried currants
1 1/2 cups Stonyfield lowfat plain ygourt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients. Cut in butter until clumps are pea-sized. Stir in currants and yogurt. Turn the dough out onto a floured cutting board, knead 1 minute, and shape into a disc. Slice and "X" in the top of loaf and bake on a greased baking sheet for 45-50 minutes. One 8-inch wide loaf.

Sadly enough my bf, Peter, does not have Kitchen Aid mixer so I cannot make extravagant or easily made anything. I am settling for the old school style, using a spoon and a bowl. It is intense at times and my arms get tired quick, but I still gotta do it. This time was interesting as well because I had to cut the butter into the flour. So I just used a fork for that. Hope that works...

Overall, I needed more yogurt. I would use 1 and 3/4 cups of yogurt, or adding in some milk maybe?

It was fun to knead the bread, its like rocking your baby to sleep before you put it in the oven to sleep.

ITS OUT!!

Isn't it beautiful! I am just so proud. Its totally golden and when I knocked on the bottom, it had the hallow sound!! Ugh I love baking. The results are just so satisfying!!

So we eat:



Oh my goodness: this loaf is much bigger than I imagined. When it was baking, oh did it grow. I mean I know the recipe called for 4 cups of flour total, and it was more than all the other recipes I looked at, but still!!! I am still amazed. So I am glad tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday, because they are gonna get a taste of this....


Uh oh...well if it is still around by tomorrow.....mmmmmmmm

I truly hope someone tries this recipe, its basically fail proof. Just remember when baking, you never want to take control of the flour. Once you work with it too much, say goodbye to airy, fluffy goodness.