In anticipation of the Saint Patrick's Day holiday meal, we've been taking it easy. You know, saving up our energy, making room in our stomachs. For us, St. Patrick's Day means corned beef slowed cooked all day, making the house smell wonderful. And no leftovers. That's right. We manage to eat a whole roast of corned beef, with the cabbage, and this year I even sliced red potatoes thickly and roasted them with the beef as well. No leftovers. It's quite a feat, I know, for two people of our size. This year was another first for me at this holiday...the introduction of soda bread.
From what I understand, it is a relatively simple bread with few ingredients. And yet I found myself making substitutions. I can't help it, there are certain things I just never have on hand. But, in the end, there was success all around!!
Since it was my first venture into the land of soda bread making, I pretty much followed the recipe found here at epicurious.com:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Brown-Butter-Soda-Bread-233910
I used margarine instead of butter, and didn't bother waiting for it to brown, if that would even happen with margarine, I'm not sure. And substituted 2% milk with white vinegar (1 and 3/4 tsp) added for the buttermilk. I never have this on hand. I didn't bother with the egg wash because the dough came out very wet and like a giant glob when I plopped it down on the cookie sheet. I just ground some black pepper and sea salt on the top of the mounds of dough instead.
The result:
Very good! I liked the taste of the rosemary and pepper in the bread. The crust was firm and rugged, a real country-style, and the inside was nicely dense and moist. I like this bread! And it worked very well with the meal. The recipe made 2 loaves, and we're still enjoying the second one the morning after. This would be great with soup, or in a sandwich with pastrami or smoked roast beef. Mmm-Hmmm. Feast your eyes on this:
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