Kiss Me! I'm Irish Soda Bread!

So, Nick and I were invited over for a St. Patrick's Day dinner at my parent's house. My mom's side has Irish blood in it (I claim it- I mean, I do have the red hair, green eyes, and freckles- come on!) Anyways, she was making corned beef and cabbage (SO GOOD). I told her I would bake up some Irish Soda Bread to contribute to the spread. Did I mention she also had some fresh green veggies with hummus, as well as clover sugar cookies iced green as well. Green tablecloth, green candles around, green balloon. It was a GREAT dinner.

Well, the bread was pretty darn tasty! It has like 4 ingredients, and I had no expectations, but WOW. For any hard-core Irish readers, you'll probably be offended by both the recipe and the pictures, but, oh well!

Whole Wheat Irish Soda Bread

Adapted from Eating Well

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups all purpose flour (Plus more for sprinkling)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 1/4 cup buttermilk

OPTIONAL: 1 tsp oats to sprinkle on top of the loaf

Preheat oven to 450

Spray a baking sheet (I used a stone) with cooking spray and sprinkle with flour.

Also, sprinkle a counter space with flour, and have a little extra ready for your hands!

Whisk together your flours, salt, and baking soda.

Now, form a well in the middle, and slowly pour your buttermilk into the well.

WITH ONE HAND, yes your own hand, mix them together just until combined, working from the inside out. The dough will be extremely sticky, thats why you want to avoid a spoon or mixing aid etc.

Once its ready, place dough onto floured surface. Wash your sticky hand, and then coat both your hands with some flour. Roll and pat the dough just to tidy up and give it a round shape. Then, flip the dough. Place onto your prepared baking sheet/stone.

With a serrated knife, make a deep cross cut in the center of the dough, and prick each of the quadrants.

IF YOU WANT, sprinkle some oats on top

Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.

Then, reduce the heat to 400 degrees and bake anywhere from 20-35 more minutes until browning on top, and hollow to the tap. WATCH IT. If it gets too hard, it will dry out. Mine only needed 20 more minutes and it was PERFECT. A crunchy crust, a soft middle. OH WE LOVED IT!

Anyways, when its ready, just pull it out and place on a cooling rack for about 30 minutes. Serve with butter and/or honey.

It says it serves 12. We didn't even finish a whole quadrant. It's very dense and filling, but good! 

Enjoy :) Even if you aren't Irish!

(Tip: Some recipes I saw added 1 tsp of sugar to sweeten it a little. Others added caraway seeds or raisins etc. You could research a little and add your own twist. I just wanted to stick to the basics on my first time!)