Irish Soda Bread

By Vicky Nardone

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!  Today I'm going to be sharing one of my favorite St. Patrick's day recipes with you - Irish soda bread.  My earliest memory of this bread goes back to second grade.  We were reading about bread as part of our reading unit and everyone had to have their parents help them bake a bread that we could bring in and share with the rest of the class.  My mom suggested we bake Irish soda bread and it was a hit!  People were coming back for seconds and there were no leftovers.  My mom is coming over to have St. Patrick's day dinner tonight and this was my contribution to the meal.

Recipe (makes 2 loaves)

•  5 cups flour
• 3 cups buttermilk
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking power

 Heat the oven to 400 degrees.  Mix all the ingredients together and stir up until you have a dough.  I used my kitchen aid with the dough hook.

 Pour the dough into greased bread pans.

Put in the oven and turn the temperature down to 375.  Let cook for about 30 minutes.  Turn the teperature down to 300 and cook for another 5 minutes

Let cool then cut and server warm with butter.  It has a really thick moist consistency.  It's one of my favorite breads ever.