st. patrick's day recipe 1 of 3: soda bread

st. paddy's day menu was cooked a week late this year since i haven't been home long enough to cook since the real date. besides cooking corned beef once i've never really cooked any traditional irish food, so this was all a first whirl. it was pretty yammmmmy even still. the first recipe was Amazingly Easy Irish Soda Bread from allrecipes.com, scaled in half since there were just 2 of us eating and tweaked slightly (the original recipe is 20 servings).

ingredients list:

- 4 cups flour

- 2 tbsp white sugar

- 1/2 tsp baking soda

- 1 & 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 1/4 tsp salt

- 1/4 cup butter, softened

- 1/2 cup buttermilk

- 1 egg

- 1 tbsp butter, melted

- 2 tbsp buttermilk

to make: preheat oven to 375 degrees. lightly grease a large baking sheet and set aside. 

in a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and 1/4 cup butter. stir in the 1/2 cup of buttermilk and egg. turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead slightly, then form dough into a flattened ball and place on prepared baking sheet. 

in a small bowl, combine melted butter with 2 tbsp buttermilk, and brush loaf with this mixture. cut an 'X' into the top of the loaf, then bake in the oven between 30 and 45 minutes, brushing with the mixture periodically. bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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i liked this. i never really ate soda bread (because of the raisins... blech) so don't have anything to compare it to, but it was still good all on its own. tastes great warm with a little bit of butter. hmmmm... 6******?