Dark Irish Soda Bread (Cuisine: Irish; Course: Bread)

Well, I'm trying the one that Bethie sent first. Lest you think I had a specific reason for doing so, I made the decision based solely on the fact that I had neither candied orange peel nor Irish whiskey (I have Seagram's... is that ok? There's only going to be a little whiskey in there...). Mom just sent me a recipe for candied orange peel, and I found a recipe in my Joy of Cooking. Maybe the next thrown-down can be the candied orange peel throw-down! (although, Mom's has much better directions, so I might just go with that.) Regardless, I am NOT avoiding the currants, aka tiny raisins.

Dark Irish Soda Bread

The Washington Post, March 5, 2008

• Cuisine: Irish
• Course: Bread

Summary:

This soda bread gets its appealing brown color from molasses and whole wheat flour. The flour used here is the traditional whole-wheat flour that is made from red-wheat berries.

It's best eaten on the same day it is made, but it tastes great toasted the next day. The bread can be wrapped well and frozen for up to 1 month. Defrost with the wrapping on so that any condensation will form on the foil and/or plastic, and not on the bread itself.

Makes one 8-inch oval loaf (12 servings)

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter (plus softened butter for greasing the baking sheet)
• 1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour, plus more for the baking sheet
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 tablespoon dark or light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons caraway seeds
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 1 cup low-fat or regular buttermilk

Directions:

Position a rack in the middle of the oven; preheat to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a rimmed baking sheet with softened butter, then sprinkle lightly with whole-wheat flour; tap to discard any excess flour.

Combine both flours, brown sugar, caraway seeds, baking soda and salt in the large bowl of a stand mixer or hand-held electric mixer. Mix to combine on low speed; add the melted butter.

Combine the molasses and the buttermilk, then add to the mixer bowl, on low speed; beat for a minute or two, until a soft dough forms. Gather the dough into a ball and roll it around in the palms of your hands to smooth it; the dough will not be perfectly smooth. Form into an 8-inch long oval and place on the prepared baking sheet. Use a smooth-edge knife to cut a slash about 5 inches long and about 1 inch deep along the length of the loaf.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the bread feels firm and crisp and you can see that the bottom has browned when you lift it carefully. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

RESULTS: some of the molasses seeped up from the knife cut and caramelized, which was really good. The next time I make this bread I might try just drizzling a little bit in the cut (although you don't want to put so much that the bread would be soggy or the sugar might burn. It's a fine balance). The texture was light and fluffy, and the whole wheat had a good chewy-ness. I love the caraway seeds and the bread smelled really good as it was cooking.

However, did this meet my Irish soda bread craving? I have to say, not really. It was excellent bread, and especially for being a whole wheat bread, it was really fluffy. But I like my Irish Soda Bread to be a little denser, so you KNOW you're eating bread, like, for hours later when you're still not hungry. It could be that I didn't wait for it to cool all the way before slicing, I really don't know what that does to the final texture. I was hungry! Or, I might have needed to stir it longer to get the dough a little tougher.

Anyway, bottom line, this was a great recipe and hats off to Bethie for finding it, but it didn't quite feed the need. The search continues.