Orange county irish soda bread

1 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
4 cups Unbleached all-purpose flour; plus additional flour for sprinkling onto dough
½ cup Toasted wheat germ
2 teaspoons Baking soda
1½ teaspoon Salt
½ cup (1 stick) cold; unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon Caraway seeds
Optional: 3/4 cup currants
1¾ cup Low-fat cultured buttermilk; (up to 2)

Directions

Notes: From Orange County Register Preliminaries: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sprinkle a baking sheet or jelly-roll pan lightly with flour.

1. In a large bowl, stir flour, wheat germ, baking soda and salt.

2. Add butter and toss to coat with flour. With fingertips, blend butter into flour until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add caraway seeds (and currants, if using); stir to combine.

3. Stir in 1¾ cups buttermilk, adding more if necessary to moisten dough evenly (do not overwork dough). 4. On a floured surface, knead dough with floured hands 1-2 minutes, sprinkling with some additional flour to prevent sticking. Divide dough in half and on baking sheet pat dough out into two 5-inch rounds. Sprinkle rounds lightly with flour and spread out dough with fingers. With a sharp knife, cut a shadow X on top of each round.

5. Bake bread in middle of oven for 35 minutes or until golden brown. To test for doneness, tap on bottom of loaf; it should sound hollow. Cool on rack.

Yield: 2 loaves (about 24-28 slices) Nutritional information (per slice): 117 calories, 4⅕ grams fat, 2⅖ grams saturated fat, 10 milligrams cholesterol, 205 milligrams sodium, 32 percent calories from fat Source: adapted from "The Best of Gourmet, Featuring the Flavors of England, Ireland and Scotland" (Random House, $28) Although the package suggests that you can cook corned beef in the microwave or bake it in the oven, I prefer the stovetop simmering method; the meat is moist and tender every time.

Posted to recipelu-digest by ncanty@... (Nadia I Canty) on Mar 29, 1998

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