TWD - Irish soda bread

The second recipe of March was Irish Soda Bread, found on page 214 of Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan.  This was such a simple recipe and was a really nice baking break after the Rugelach, which were not terribly difficult but involved lots of steps and waiting.  If you would like the recipe you can find it at the following blogs by Carla and Cathleen.   If you would like to see how everyone did this week click here.

I didn't take pictures of the process this week, there wasn't a lot to it and I was feeling a bit lazy to be quite honest :/  We were so busy on actual St Patrick's day that we decided to celebrate on Sunday the 18th instead.  By celebrate, I mean eat! 

The dough came together so easily.  I wasn't sure if I had done it right, but it baked up nicely.  I opted to add a cup of raisin's as I love a good raisin bread slathered with creamy butter.  The dough itself was more wet than I would have predicted from the description in the book but I didn't want to add more flour or risk over working the dough.  So I just went with it and crossed my fingers. 



If you are looking for a lighty airy bread, don't go for this.  It doesn't have any yeast so it doesn't get that airation that you would get from a yeast dough.  I actually like that about it, a good dense bread is my favourite kind.  This certainly delivers on that.  It had a nice flavour and because of the density I couldn't sit down and consume the entire loaf by myself.  I am sure I could give it a valiant effort though.  Luckily for my hips I have five children and a husband who are more than happy to help out when it comes to eating baked goods.

Next month we are making Pizza Rustica and Lemon Loaf Cake.  I really need to make sure I work out plenty in April, it is looking to be a delicious month!