Irish Soda Bread

IMG_1945  There is irish soda bread in your future. I can see it. A nice hardy hunk slathered in butter and honey, crumbs all over the place.  So all you have to do know is make it. 

I remember reading somewhere (I wish I could remember where) that irish soda bread is just four ingredients, flour, sea salt, baking soda and buttermilk and adding  anything else would make  it a cake. So when I decided to make irish soda bread, thats all I used. ( I made it with some wheat flour) What you end up with is a highly dense, super fragrant, soft, chewy bread with a crunchy crust. Definitely not a cake.

Note….You can for sure add in a bit of sweetener or even little fat to make it richer and softer, but then it wouldn't be bread (or so that's what I read) There are tons of other recipes out there that have other stuff in them. This is just a really simple basic recipe. 

IMG_1828White whole wheat flour and all purpose flour mixed together. Salt baking soda and buttermilk. That's it.IMG_1840All the dry whisked together and in goes the buttermilk. Mix together until dough starts to form then dump onto a floured surface.  Handling dough as little as possible, knead into ball.

IMG_1857Place on a baking sheet and dust with flour. Take a sharp knife and cut  an X through the top about 1/2 inch deep.

Stick in into the oven for 50 ish minutes, or unit la tester stuck into the middle comes out clean and there is kind of a hollow thunk when tapped on. IMG_1956

And now you have a very pretty, dense hunk of irish soda bread. 

Cut and serve with butter and honey (thats how the mister likes it) or whatever you want to eat it with.

-C

Irish Soda Bread

  • 1 cup all purpose flour 
  • 1 cup white whole wheat flour (or you can use all purpose) 
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup buttermilk (or your choice if milk plus a tablespoon lemon juice) 

Preheat oven to 375

In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda and salt. Mix in buttermilk until the dough starts to come together. If the dough seems to dry, add another splash or two of milk. Dump out dough onto a floured surface and shape into a ball. transfer onto a baking sheet, dust with flour and cut a x about 1/2 inch into the top. Stick into oven for 50 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean and the bread makes a hollow sound when tapped.

Let cool enough to handle.

Cut into and serve with a smear of whatever you want

Best eaten within a day or two

Honey Wheat Pull Apart rolls

IMG_4319HORRAY, its Saturday!!! I don't care that I have a bunch of laundry and house work to do, bills to pay, a mangy dog to groom… I get to do it all at home with the music blasting,(maybe some  holiday tunes) a lot of coffee, in my comfy sweats and the oven on. Weekends are always a mixed bag of crazy for me but I can usually count on being at home for a chunk of the morning or afternoons and that's when I jump at the chance to make me some yeasted bread. Give me a couple of hours, my list of chores and watch me go.. I can mix and knead,, set aside to rise and hit up cleaning that toilet. Go back and knead, divided and rise again, then go fold all the laundry. Stick the bread in the oven and watch out, I am mopping the floors. I am nothing if not a fantastic multitasked, much like these rolls. You can serve them as a side for dinner , use them as a sandwich roll, or eat them as the star with a dab of butter and a drizzle of honey. The possibilities are endless. This particular recipe is fantastic for may reasons….  Its pretty simple, not to many ingredients and is made with whole wheat flour. If you don't want 16 rolls, you can make the dough, bake half and freeze  the rest. You could even bake into loaves of bread instead.Yeah, sounds good right?  Go ahead, you know you want to. Just do it!IMG_4220I always gather the ingredients.. I have learned over the years that if I have all my stuff out and measured in front of me, I will almost never forget something and that I make less of a mess. It also helps that I find it pretty. So, flours and salt are whisked together. The yeast and honey in a bowl waiting to be proofed. The butter in need of more melting and an egg.. Pretty.IMG_4231 Honey and yeast mixed with a cup of warm water.  BE CAREFUL with the temperature of the water.. If its to hot, the yeast will kill the yeast and you will have to start over again, but I trust you won't do that.IMG_4238Now that the yeast is active, mix in melted butter and egg. (Make sure the butter is not hot, warm is ok)  Add wet ingredients to the dry and mix.

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I have a super awesome dough mixer , it helps to mix and not completely stick like it does to a wooden spoon. Dont have one? Use a wooden spoon, it works the same with a little more stickiness..You have a stand mixer? Well fancy you. No I am not jealous,(maybe a little). I like using my hands when making bread, but you? Go ahead, use your mixer, its cool with me. So mix you dough, you want the dough  wet and  sticky but still able to roll into a ball. If you need to, add a pinch more of flour, just enough to help form a ball.  When ball is formed, drizzle oil and rub all over and place in bowl with a damp towel. Let sit somplace warm to rise for about an 45 minutes or unit dough has  doubled in size. A good warm spot..Try the top of the fridge, thats my rising spot.

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Once it has doubled, roll out onto a nicely floured surface and..my favorite part,  punch it down and knead for a few minutes…. This dough doesn't need a lot of kneading, just enough to reform ball and get some air out. Now divide and place into well buttered pans. I used two 9 inch cake pans, but a 13 X 9 pan or baking dish would work or loaf pans if you want loaves. Just make sure to really  butter the pans.

IMG_4281               IMG_4312                                            Little ball of dough turned into big balls of dough. (Yeast is so cool!).Into the oven they go.  Right before I baked them I gave the tops a little milk wash, just for color. Do it if you want, you could even do an egg wash, but it's really not necessary.IMG_4319 Oh boy… Fresh from the oven…Take a bit of butter and melt over the top….IMG_4321So lovely! Who wouldn't want to just tear these beauties apart?

Now eat.. Eat with jam, eat with cheese, eat with peanut butter or with a bit of honey. Or, eat as is…..Just eat it and enjoy you labor of love and the satisfaction that you just made those delicious rolls that you are eating.

Honey Wheat Pull-apart Rolls.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 3/4 white whole wheat flour
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 4 tablespoons melted butter
  • teaspoon salt
  • 2 1/4 teaspoon yeast
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup warm water
  • 2 tablespoons butter(to rub over baked rolls)

Makes 16  good-sized rolls

In a large bowl whisk together both flours and salt.

In a smaller bowl add warm water, yeast and honey. Stir and  let sit for  5 - 10 minutes or until the yeast has grown and is foamy. Meanwhile, melt butter and let sit for 5 minutes. When the yeast has proofed, whisk together with butter and egg. Add to dry ingredients.

With a dough spoon , wooden spoon, stand mixer  or your fist, mix (or knead) until the dough comes together and begins to form into a ball. You want the dough to be wet and sticky but add a pinch or two of flour if its to wet and not forming a ball.

Coat dough with a little oil and place back into large bowl. Cover with a towel and place in a warm place(The top of the fridge is great) Let rise for 45 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

When dough has doubled, dump dough onto a well floured surface, flour up you hand and punch down the dough and knead for a few minutes. Divided dough  16 even balls.  Now is a good time to preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place in greased pans ( 8 in each) and cove with plastic and let rise for another 20-30 minutes or until dough has doubled and filling out the pans.  When the second rise is done, place in oven and bake for 25 minutes or until a nice light brown. If you want a darker crust, right before baking, lightly brush the tops of rolls with butter. As soon as the rolls are removed from the oven take the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter( one tablespoon for each pan) and melt over top of  rolls

Note..If you want to freeze any rolls, place in a pan after fist rise and stick in freezer until frozen Transfer to a airtight bag. When you want to use, simply pop out of freezer and let sit for about and hour. Bake as directed above.