Irish Soda Bread

I have been a horrible, horrible food blogger.  It is encroaching upon a month since the last time a wrote anything!  I know you don't want to hear my excuses, but I swear I have some!  First, I was on a cruise for the first week of March.  Here is some photographic evidence:

Aren't my housemates BEAUTIFUL with their new hairstyles? 

I know, woe is me.  But when you're cursing in the Bahamas, there isn't any access to a computer, let alone internet.  But when I came back to Ann Arbor, I decided to download a trial version of Aperture 3.  As amazing as it is, I knew it would be a little longer until I was able to by the program.  I mainly wanted to use the trail version to play around with and try editing some photos.  The problem was that I couldn't access my Aperture 2 photo library and I was too afraid to upload anything new into Aperture 3!  After going home and having my dad work his magic on my dear mac, I was able to get into Aperture 2.  Sad thing is that I fell in love with Aperture and I finally bought it this week!  Now I can upload, organize, and play around with photos like never before!

Now back to the food: I love Irish soda bread.  Scratch that, I love traditional Irish soda bread.  Most of the recipes floating around on the Internet call for ingredients like butter, raisins and eggs… my dear non-Gaelic friends, that is not traditional.  The fewer ingredients, the better.  I adapted this recipe from the Merlin Menu and just now realized that I didn't follow the directions.  This is a good thing, though!  The bread turned out perfectly.  My housemate, Kate, was even bragging to people at the bar that I was the first person to make Irish soda bread she liked.  And everyone at The Environment Report gobbled it up!  It's so easy to make and is such a crowd pleaser - go make some as soon as you can!

Side Note:  I didn't have any buttermilk, so I mixed two and a half cups of milk with 2 (and a little bit more) tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice that I let sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups bread flour
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 to 2 1/2 cups buttermilk. 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Line baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat. Whisk both flours, sugar, and baking soda in bowl to blend.  Add buttermilk; stir until a sticky balls forms.
3. Divide into two loves.  Turn out onto floured surface and knead briefly until dough comes together, about 5 to 10 turns. Shape into a round ball and place on baking sheet. Sprinkle flour onto of the Cut a large X, 1/2 inch deep across the top of the dough.
4. Bake until the bread is deeply browned (30 to 45 minutes) and sounds hollow when tapped on the top. This bread will "look" done well before it is, so prepare to generally bake for the full time shown.