Friday, August 15, 2008

Soda Bread at Tea Time

I recently traveled to Edinburgh for an academic conference. In an attempt to not spend a fortune eating out, I went grocery shopping for some meals. In the bread aisle I hunted out the densest, darkest, heaviest bread I could find (as per usual) and I ended up with a loaf of Irish soda bread. It was delicious and I ate some every day with butter and jam (while sipping hot tea, how very British of me). Yesterday I got the urge to make some of my own. It is very easy since it doesn't require any yeast or serious kneading. My recipe was inspired by this one from Simply Recipes, but I used mostly whole wheat flour (about 3/4ths of the flour), so mine is a lot darker.

I had some today with butter and some grape jam made by Jenny's stepmother. Deliciously rustic.

Note: According to this site, what I made was not traditional Irish soda bread, but "spotted dog" or "railway cake." That's fine with me; I'm a sucker for taste more than authenticity.

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